Who Do You Think You Are?
by whackblight
Summary: After their fight at ground Beta, Principal Nezu has had enough of young Bakugo and Midoriya constantly being at each other's throats, so he calls in a favor from an old friend, who has the ability to switch other's minds/bodies. What could go wrong, right?
1. Prologue: A Decision is Made

Beady obsidian eyes blinked back patiently at the pair of educators staring at him with a myriad of emotions fleeting across their faces, but the most prevalent of which was shock.

"You can't be serious," Aizawa finally states, his voice taking on a hard tone as he failed at keeping his anger from seeping through.

"On the contrary, I'm quite serious," Principal Nezu states bluntly. "These boys need to understand how to work together effectively if they're ever going to succeed here at UA, or in the future. This exercise will only aide this process."

"YO! DID YOU LEARN NOTHING FROM WHEN THIS WAS DONE TO ME AND ERASER?!" The rodent and hero beside him noticeably jump at Present Mic's abrupt disruption of the otherwise silent, tense atmosphere.

Nezu recovers and answers, "Although I was not here when my predecessor was running this school, he did pass on the information of what happened during you and Eraser's first year here, yes. And from what I can gather, it seems that his plan was a success! Not only did you both go on to graduate highly in your class, you two are still close and work together fabulously so many years later. You don't think this would be beneficial for the boys, going through the same experience you two did?" Nezu asks, one eyebrow raising, a soft smile on his lips.

Eraser and Mic share a worried, knowing glance, both understanding that their situation was a bit different when they were Bakugo and Midoriya's age.

The two men had just hated each other because they were quite possibly the definition of polar opposites, what with Mic being obnoxiously loud and commanding attention, while Eraser would love nothing more than to blend into the background. They had gone through this trial due to their inability to respect each other and work together to get assignments done. It had begun to hinder their progress to become pros, as well as their classmate's, and so their teachers had decided to take action.

Now that Aizawa was recalling the past incident it did sound rather similar to his top two student's predicament now…but, "It isn't the same," the Erasure hero finally states, "these two don't just not get along, they've got a past, and from what I can tell it's a long and complicated one at that. What they _need_ is a counselor, not some little experiment that just so happens to have a high success rate and sample size of _ONE_ duo," he finishes sourly, narrowing his gaze at the small mammal in front of him.

"I believe you are greatly underestimating the effect this 'experiment' had on you and Mic's relationship moving forward," Nezu replies calmly, "and while I would much prefer for you to be on board with this, it is not a necessity for me to continue forward with this plan. Ultimately, I am the one running this institution, and I won't stand by to allow these two to ruin their bright futures or slow down the progress of their classmates over this petty feud."

"I'm just letting you two know," Nezu continues, "one, because Eraser, these are your students and I don't want you to be blindsided by this, and two, because you two are the only ones here who would understand what they're going through. Guide them. Make sure they learn from this experience."

Nezu moves from his spot in the front of the classroom, passing between the two heroes, to the door pushing it open slightly before turning back and ending the upsetting conversation with a smile and tinkling laugh, "I'll make the call tonight!", he singsongs.

The door closes as the analytical mouse steps out into the hall, leaving the childhood enemies turned partners alone.

"Yo, Shota, this is insane! Yeah this worked on us, but who's to say this will be beneficial for them? We barely made it back to our own bodies and we didn't hate one another nearly as much as these two kids seem to, you know?" Mic claims wildly, arms flailing as he recounts their past traumatic event.

"I know," Eraser replies blandly, "we're definitely going to have to keep an eye on them, there's no doubt about that, but I'm not in the least bit interested in dealing with _him_ again."

Mic shudders at the mention of their old tormentor, the memory of the man responsible for their suffering so many years ago…

"Yeah man, he's so creepy! And scary!" He exclaims, now visibly sweating, "I had nightmares for months-"

"You're a grown man now Mic, act like it." Aizawa snaps, cutting him off, before rolling his eyes and sighing heavily. He worked to keep the bored expression on his face, though he too has begun to perspire, and his lash out didn't hold nearly as much bite as he might have liked.

"Why can't I ever just get a moment of peace? These next two weeks are going to be ridiculous," he grumbles, pinching the bridge of his nose to ward off the beginnings of a what was sure to turn into a migraine; heading toward the door to make his way out of the room as well.

"Wait up! We need to come up with a game plan!" Mic hurries after the other man, throwing out idea after idea about how to best aid the two aspiring heroes on what is sure to be one of the most unnerving experiences of their young lives. Aizawa walks beside him silently, worry and irritation etched into his features.


	2. Izuku goes Blonde

The shrill pierce of his alarm stirs him from the odd dream he was having. Just before the annoying monotonous ringing started up Izuku remembers being in some kind of trance…in his dream…he thinks…it's all very blurry, but the dream felt incredibly real. He was in his bed and he could hear chanting of some kind and the vague outline of a truly terrifying…monster? In the corner of the room. He couldn't seem to move though, although he wanted nothing more than to flee. Blinding yellow eyes bore into him and just as the beast in the corner was approaching the offending sound had started up next to his ear.

He rolled over groggily and put it to snooze, eyes still shut, knowing he'd most likely need the reminder soon. He groaned at the movement, his body felt like he had been run over sometime during the night. Then other memories start to flood in. Meeting Kacchan at Ground Beta, them exchanging heated words as well as blows, before All Might stepped in to neutralize the whole situation. Although the altercation ended much better than Izuku had ever imagined it would, he had still suffered at the hands of Kacchan's rage, which, let's be very clear, is not something someone can just walk off.

Every muscle was sore, every movement stiff. Slowly, so slowly, he began to sit up, finally working his eyes open, letting them adjust to the bright morning light coming in through the slates of the blinds. When his vision began to focus he instantly became confused. Where was all of his All Might memorabilia? Why was his bed on the opposite wall? Had someone cleaned his room? He'd never seen it this tidy before…

He glances around puzzled, trying to make sense of what could've happened in the five hours since he'd gone to sleep. He hesitantly began to move off from the bed, lifting the covers, and sliding his feet onto the floor. He stood and immediately fell. It was like he had no idea how to walk, as if he were trying again for the very first time. Even just attempting to pick himself back up off the floor seemed impossible.

"I can't be this sore, right?" he mutters to himself, but after speaking he freezes. What was _that_? That wasn't his voice was it? It was so gruff and low, two words never before used to describe Izuku's voice, much to his embarrassment.

It's then that he notices his hands, perfectly smooth and large. Flipping them over he notices that his palms are thoroughly calloused and damp with sweat and he furrows his brow. Where were his scars? Although everything happening was indeed odd, the greenette was still very much under the influence of sleep and truly exhausted, so he moves past these oddities to focus on one thing at a time, and all he really needed to accomplish right now, was pee.

He manages to stand again, this time making sure to focus on the mechanics of walking, something he didn't think was necessary past the age of two or before the age of eighty, but here he was, wobbling to the bathroom across the small living space like a new born giraffe.

Once inside he flips on the light and pads over to the toilet. Moving to free himself from his boxers, he notices that they're orange, which is strange, Izuku had no orange boxers, and he certainly didn't have any boxers that hugged this _tight_…

Moving past even this, due to his urgency to alleviate the pressure on his bladder, he moves to open the underwear in order to finally find some relief and suddenly everything comes rushing in at once.  
"This...is not my penis…," he draws out slowly, in the low voice from earlier that he also recognizes as not being his own.  
"THIS ISN'T MY PENISSS!" he yells, dropping the appendage and backing away like there is anywhere to hide from something physically attached to your body.

Back now pressed firmly against the wall, breath becoming shallow, he catches movement in the mirror. Blonde is the only thing his brain registers, before double taking and gaping into the reflective glass. Staring back at him were crimson eyes, dilated with terror, unruly ash blonde spikes sticking up in every direction, an incredibly developed chest, and his cock still out.

Izuku does the only sensible thing one can do in this situation, he screams. The scream is nothing he expects it to be, as it is low and guttural, almost like his vocal cords couldn't comprehend the noise he was trying to make. This only causes him scream louder, flinging himself out of the bathroom and as far away from the mirror as possible.  
He's hyperventilating now, not having any inkling of what the hell is going on, he turns in a circle around his room, no, not _his_ room, _Kacchan's_room. _Oh, God_.

A knock on the door causes him to jump and steals his attention away from his terrified thoughts. He swallows thickly and moves toward the entrance of the room. He cautiously turns the handle, opening the door a crack, because what else could happen today, you know? Gotta be on guard.

Glancing out nervously he sees Kirishima staring back, his worry evident.

"Are you ok, man? It sounded like an animal was dying in there. What's going on?" he moves to push into the room. Taking notice of what was happening Izuku pushes back.

"Everything's fine, Eijiro! I'm good, really," he says, feeling his face heat up. "Just, uh, saw a bug, got it though!"

Kirishima isn't buying it, obviously. "You just called me by my actual name. Not 'Shitty-hair', or any of the million other stupid nicknames you've given me, and you've never once screamed because of a bug before. I'm coming in," he says decidedly, and pushes against the door again before Izuku can react, successfully making his way inside.

Not two seconds after entering Kirishima has his hands over his eyes.

"Dude, what the hell?! Put that thing away!" he screeches. Izuku scrunches his eyebrows together confused before he realizes that his privates are still on full display hanging from the front of his underwear. Thoroughly embarrassed he quickly shoves it back inside and apologizes profusely. Flailing his arms around as his face no doubts turns a brand new shade of red.

Finally convincing Kirishima it's safe to look around now, the red head lowers his hands.  
"Bakubro, I don't know what the fuck is going on, but it's too fucking early for this shit!" he huffs out. "Are you sure everything is alright? You never apologize… or blush for that matter. If anything you'd usually blame me for looking if I'd walk in here and you had your dick out or blame me for being in your room while you were changing or something."

Izuku has no idea what to say. He's just staring at the concerned boy in front of him trying desperately to understand how he ended up in this situation.  
The loud sounding of his alarm finally going off again elicits a yelp from Izuku, causing Kirishima to jump, surprised at the uncharacteristic noise coming from his hard-as-nails friend.

This blaring of his alarm cutting through the room is what finally sends Izuku over the edge; all the pent up stress bubbling over at that moment and Izuku couldn't help himself, he does the one thing that never fails to calm him down.

"…Bro, are you-are you ... _crying_?" Kirishima whispers, completely dumbstruck by what he's witnessing.  
"N-no," Izuku mutters out, his tongue thick in his mouth. He moves to swipe a tear threatening to fall and Kirishima's jaw effectively drops.

"I'm just going to come back later, man," Kirishama says while jabbing a thumb in the door's direction, "you're obviously going through something right now. I'm here to talk if you need anything?" he says the last part like a question, mostly just because he's beyond confused as to how he's supposed to react to this new side of Bakugo he's seeing. Usually Bakugo would kill him for proposing he share his feelings with him, but then again he'd also usually never blush in front of his friend, let alone shed _tears_, so boundaries are being crossed all over the place today, apparently.

Kirishima hurriedly exits the room, but not before shooting one more curious/worried glance at his friend.

Once the hardening hero has left Izuku lets the tears fall freely. However, the action in Kacchan's body seemed to irritate his eyes and was borderline painful. _How long has it been since these tear ducts have been used_, Izuku thinks to himself angrily as he furiously swipes at the tears staining his cheeks.

He has absolutely no idea what is happening right now, or where to even begin to rectify this situation; the overbearing pressure he feels currently seems like it's crushing him.

As he's drowning in negative thoughts, one jumps to the forefront of his mind: If he's in Kacchan's body, then…

He flies down the hall to his room, crashing into the wall and falling to the floor, as he still seems to have zero control over this body. He makes it to his door, breathing hard, and pounds on it furiously. He hears cursing coming from behind the door and his heart drops to his stomach. _Oh no, oh no no no_.

He knocks again, harder.

"Fuck off!" he hears in his own voice scream, then a very confused, "what the fuck?"

For the next minute and a half he hears a lot of stumbling, clanging, and cursing, which is probably a result of Kachann figuring out that walking is hard in someone else's body; _but does he know it isn't his body yet_, Izuku wonders.

Finally he seems to reach the door and wrenches it open, a curse no doubt ready on his lips to murder whoever was waking him from his slumber, when he catches sight of who's standing in his doorway. Wide verdant eyes grow wider with recognition as Kacchan notices himself staring back. _Ah, guess he hadn't figured it out yet, then_.

Izuku sucks in a breath as he sees himself through another set of eyes, before flinching at Kacchan's new high pitched exclaim.

"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!"


	3. Katsuki Shrinks

Katsuki believes he has officially died and gone to hell when he opens the door to see his pretty mug staring back at him.

He doesn't remember much of the following minutes to be perfectly honest. He knows there is a large amount of yelling and threatening, most likely by him, as well as the inability to see the world in anything other than a red haze.

At some point later on he finds himself seated on the ground, back against the bed, focusing on his labored breathing after coming down from his rage. Only to have the feeling surge back up again when he realizes Deku is muttering under his breath, which for whatever reason always strikes a nerve of Katsuki's.

He growls, though coming from Izuku's lips it doesn't sound nearly as threatening.

"Deku, you have three fucking second to explain what's going on or I'm blowing this whole damn building up, I swear to God!" he spits out, eyes narrowed to slits.

Deku ceases his muttering and deadpans in Kachann's direction. Sarcastically he asks, "And how do you plan on doing that, Kacchan?" quirking an brow while crossing his arms, his lips tightening into a then line.

"You know how, nerd," he snaps back, throwing his palms up, ready to activate…his…

"_NO_!" he screams in a high pitched unfamiliar voice, staring at his new, scared palms in disbelief. His beautiful, destructive baby..._gone_. He suddenly has the urge to hold back a sob.

"I'm glad you're finally starting to understand what's happening, idiot," Izuku huffs, rolling his eyes, staring at Kachann in his body.

Katsuki instantly reverts back to his default emotion – rage. Snapping his head up to glare daggers at Izuku.

"I'm gonna kill you! What did you do to me?!" He demands, eyes wild, like a cornered animal.

Izuku snorts, "Kacchan, I didn't do anything, I woke up in the same situation as you, so please stop yelling and let's figure this out, alright?" he's losing patience with the hysterical boy in front of him. They didn't have time for a melt down, they had class in a half hour. Izuku voices this concern and Katsuki's forest eyes jump to crimson.

"We are not, I repeat, NOT, going to class like this. _Period_. End of discussion," he grinds out.

"Yes, we are," Izuku throws back coolly.

"What part of 'end of discussion' do you not understand? I said no."

"And I'm saying I don't care. It doesn't change the fact that we're going."

"No, dammit!" Katsuki couldn't believe what a stubborn little shit Izuku was being. He's never had to fight to get his way before, and it's seriously starting to piss him off, to say the least.

"Yes."

This bickering goes on for a childish amount of time, really, before Izuku throws his hands up in exasperation and yells, "What is your plan then, huh?! Sit around and hope this just goes away? We have lives to get on with Kacchan, stop whining and get up."

Katsuki raises his eyebrows in surprise. "Oh, you've got a pair on you now, don't you? Now that you're in my body you think you can just order me around, huh? I bet you like this don't you Deku? I obviously got the short end of the stick here," he laughs humorlessly.

"For your information, _Katsuki_," he lingers on his given name, knowing how much Katsuki hates hearing it cross his lips, "_I_ got the short end of the stick, _you_, however,just jumped into the body that now controls _the_ most powerful quirk on Earth," Izuku states smugly, "and I think even you know you couldn't handle it on your best day."

"What the fuck did you just say to me?" he bolts upright quickly closing the distance between himself and…himself? Fuck this is confusing. "_I_ can't handle it? You've literally almost killed yourself trying to use this damn quirk you idiot! I could harness this power in my sleep," he scoffs, looking up at Deku, and forcing himself not to noticeably flinch away as he stares into his own eyes, unnerved by the sharp, scrutinizing gaze.

_That color is terrifying_, he thinks to himself before realizing that he's having to really crane his neck to get in Deku's face. _How damn short was he?!_

Izuku looks down at him and smirks, "I can definitely see why you're so confident in picking fights with me Kacchan, being this much taller than everyone is amazing! Look at you!" he coos, patting the messy curls atop his head, in a patronizing way that made Katsuki's blood boil, "you're so tiny! Aw, I could crush you right now," Deku smiles evilly, his tone taking a hard edge toward the end of his sentence, eyes darkening.

"What the FUCK! Don't talk down to me asshole!" He slaps Deku's hand away from his head and proceeds to grab him by the shirt, raising his palm to blow his face in before realizing his mistake and cursing.

"I may be in your puny ass body, but I'll still kick your ass, you hear me?!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Like you'd ever hit your pretty face," Izuku waves him off. Detaching the fisted hand in his shirt and heading towards the door.

Katsuki sputters at the utter lack of respect and acknowledgment he's receiving, this is a new sensation for him, being ignored, and he already fucking hates it! Also, did he just call his face _pretty_? What the hell?!

"Oi! Don't walk away from me! What the fuck do you think this is?!"

"I'm pulling a you, on you, Kacchan, _fucking deal with it_," he hears the nerd mimic his phrasing and attitude perfectly, the last few words he spoke rolling off of Katsuki's tongue as effortlessly as if it were his own actions behind it. He stills.

Whoa. That was creepy as fuck. But also kind of…hot? What no, where the hell had that word come from?

He doesn't have time to dissect that little slip up before he hears his voice beckoning from the hallway, "Be downstairs in five minutes, so we can work this mess out or I'm going to let the whole campus see you cry. Understand?"

Katsuki shivers at the tone Izuku's voice has taken. It's commanding in a way he's never experienced before. He quickly moves to obey, cursing his submissive new attitude.  
Stupid fucking Deku body, making him weak and shit.

Katuski shakes his head to clear out the negative thoughts. _As fucking if._ Who the hell did Deku think he was anyway? Challenging Katsuki of all people. Damn nerd is in for it, that's for sure. Because he wasn't going down without a fight.

If Deku wants to fuck with his life, Katsuki can do the same. Two can play this game.


	4. Izuku isn’t Blind

Izuku finds his way back to Kacchan's room quickly, knowing they have much to talk about and sort through before taking this little freak show of theirs public. As he picks through drawers to find their school uniform he can't help but take a second to marvel at how meticulous everything was in Kacchan's room. Every article of clothing was pressed, every piece of paper on his desk in order, the floor was spotless, and his bed…well it would've been perfect if Izuku hadn't just gotten out of it.

Feeling guilty he heads back across the room to straighten out the comforter to make sure the whole room was put together now. He smiled softly to himself, _who knew Kacchan was capable of being this organized?_ His personality suggested he be anything but neat, what with the only two words floating through Izuku's mind to describe Kacchan being: explosive and unhinged.

Izuku hesitantly begins moving towards the bathroom to finish the rest of his morning routine, remembering his last experience at the toilet not too long ago. He's still unsure how to go about this whole penis thing. It wasn't his, but for the time being it technically was, right? He desperately still had to use the restroom and this back and forth commentary he had looping in his mind about this extremely confusing situation was driving him crazy.

He throws caution to the wind, deciding that Kacchan will have to be using his own dick soon too, and finally finds relief. While in the moment, Izuku is trying his best not to look at the thing, he really is, but how often do you get the chance to compare yourself to someone else without the repercussions of staring? He was a curious boy after all, he can't be blamed for that.

Before realizing it, Izuku finds himself examining Kacchan's package.

It was...Izuku rolls his eyes, it was perfect. Of course it was, it was Kacchan's dick, when was anything of Kacchan's not perfect? His teeth, his symmetrical face, those terrifyingly gorgeous scarlet orbs, his extremely toned, lean muscles surrounding this 5'8" frame and not to mention his beautifully tanned skin. Izuku couldn't seem to force his eyes away from the aforementioned golden skin that lead down to the cock in his now very large, masculine hands. It was covered with a super fine, blonde happy trail, like the perfect little landing strip used to guide others to his crotch.

_For Christ's sake, why fight to be top hero when you could just be Japan's next top model instead_, Izuku thinks bitterly to himself, before shoving the offending member back into its confinements.

He finishes the rest of his bathroom duties, all the while not being able to shake the irritation he felt towards himself for not being able to get all of Kacchan's attractive features out of his mind. Izuku blushes from the embarrassment of thinking of his childhood friend as attractive, then justifies it by rationalizing that he isn't blind, anyone with eyes could see Kacchan was good looking...right? He was just agreeing with the masses. It was just common knowledge, he assures himself, "No need to read deeper into it than that," he mutters aloud as he makes his way out of the borrowed bedroom.

After making his way down to the kitchen on the first floor and being halfway through making a bowl of cereal, he hears Kacchan before he sees him. He's made his way into the kitchen loudly mumbling something about Izuku being a demanding little bastard and scrapes one of the chairs at the island against the floor, creating a rather awful screech. Izuku sighs at the loss of quiet and glances over his shoulder where his eyes are then immediately drawn to the mop of green taking over Kacchan's head.

"Oh my god, what did you do to my hair?" Izuku asks not being able to understand how Kacchan had managed to get the 'angry pigeon made a home in my curls' look in such a short amount of time.

"Hey, don't fucking look at me like that, this mess has a mind of its own," Kacchan states angrily, pointing at the rat's nest on top of his head. "I tried to do you a favor and run a comb through this crap for once in its unruly life and this is the result."

"Yeah, it gets angry when you try to tame it. Just let it do its thing," Izuku chuckles while simultaneously shrugging and looking for a spoon.

Kacchan clicks his tongue, while crossing his arms, obviously not satisfied with this answer, but unable to fix the problem currently.

He begins to take notice of what Izuku is doing and hops up out of his chair to fly around the island and slap the spoon out of the boy's hands just as he's about to take his first bite. Izuku's eyes follow the spoon as it clatters loudly on the floor, hand still in position to insert said spoon into his mouth.

"What the hell was that for?!" he yells, eyes wide, eyebrows drawn together, shoving past Kacchan to retrieve the assaulted utensil.

"Don't put fucking milk and whatever sugary crap that is in my body, you idiot! Do you know what kind of diet I'm on?! You'll wreck all my progress with that shit!" he seethes, promptly snatching the bowl out of his hands next and dumping all its contents down the drain, all the while keeping direct eye contact with Izuku, glaring. All Izuku can do is stare back worriedly.

"I seriously think you may be insane." Izuku finally manages, blinking out of his stupor.

"I-," Izuku cuts him off from what is sure to be some type of obnoxious rant.

"Whatever, Kacchan, just give me a list or something of what I'm supposed to eat and I'll eat it, I'm not about to argue with you right now, we need to get going."

This seems to leave Kacchan at a loss for words, unable to figure out if he's upset for just being insulted and cut off or smug after having just won this argument by default.

Izuku takes advantage of Kacchan's silence, a truly rare opportunity, and states quickly, "We need to pretend to be each other while we figure out how this happened."

Of all things, Kacchan laughs.

"What's so funny?" Izuku asks, confused.

"What's funny," Kacchan starts, between chuckles, "is you thinking you could pretend to _me_."

"And why exactly is that funny?" Izuku demands, arms crossing, chin tilting up defiantly.

"Because no one can pull off me. I'm me! I'm fucking fantastic," he laughs, "although I'm not gonna lie, what you did back there in the hallway, talking to me the way you did, while annoying as all hell, was pretty damn close." Kacchan's shrugs, inclined to give him the small compliment, while moving around the island to splay his now scared hands across the surface, leaning over it and looking Izuku right in the eye.

"But mimicking what I say and mimicking how I behave are two different things entirely, Deku, and I honestly just don't think you're up for the challenge."

"Oh? But you think you could pull off being me?"

Kacchan smiles devilishly, peering up at Izuku through tangled bangs, and responds with one word: "Easily."

Izuku gulps at the intensity of the stare, feeling a strange tingle run down the length of his body from having his own large, twinkling eyes seemingly look through him in an almost predatory way. Creeping up after the tingle came a strong surge of anxiety. Izuku didn't understand where this was coming from, it was like it wasn't his own response to the way those wide eyes were staring at him, it felt as if he had no control over this almost knee jerk reaction to gazing into those deep forest pools. _Why is my heart beating so fast?_

He has no time to analyze whatever the hell that was because, in a blink, Kacchan is shouldering his backpack, shoving Izuku his own, grabbing the boy's wrist in a vise grip and yanking him behind himself out the front door.


	5. Katsuki, Runway Coach Extraordinaire!

Katsuki hears the front door to the dorms slam shut and Deku protesting behind him as his eyes adjust to the brightness of the new day.

"Quit your whining, shitty Deku," Katsuki says as he moves far enough away from the dorms that they won't be overheard, heading down the paved path to the section of campus where classes were held.

He finally lets go of the death grip he had on Deku's wrist when they have about a five minute walk left to class 1-A. "Here," he states, seemingly satisfied.

"Here, what?" Deku asks begrudgingly, rubbing his now sore wrist and taking a look around.

"Show me what you've got," he demands, impatiently, "I already know you're going to need a ton of work, but show me what I'm starting with so I know what we need to focus on."

"What exactly are you wanting me to do here, Kacchan?" Izuku asks perplexed.

Katsuki rolls his eyes, and tries to reign in his temper. _What was this nerd not understanding?_

"Strut, loser! And throw in some obscenities or something so I can see if you can actually go out in public as me or not, Jesus. I thought you were supposed to be smart."

Izuku blushes, and looks around again frantically, "Here?!"

Katsuki snorts, "Nervous, Deku?" He asks, "You seemed irritated earlier about me suggesting you couldn't be me. I for sure thought you were going to at least _try_ and make me eat my words, but guess I was wrong. Cowardly as ever I see."

Once Izuku hears the challenge in Katsuki's voice he immediately straightens, face becoming serious, hands balling to fists as he taps into a newfound determination. He glares at Katsuki before finding a suitable starting spot on the sidewalk for what was no doubt going to be the world's most embarrassing catwalk.

Katsuki leans against a nearby tree smiling smugly, waiting on the nerd to put on what was sure to be a show. He watches as the boy in his body takes a few centering breathes and rolls his shoulders to take a more relaxed stance.

"Not a bad start! Getting that stick out of your ass was definitely first thing on my list of notes for you," He calls out from under the tree, though judging by the sheer amount of concentration Deku is giving this he doubts he even heard him.

When he notices Izuku undoing the first few buttons on his uniform top and sagging his pants slightly he nods appreciatively, "Hell yeah! Give the people what they want! A little skin goes a _looong_ way," he waggles his eyebrows, goading Deku into fucking up. That comment seems to get through to him as he sees Deku move to flip him off. _Ballsy_, Katsuki thinks with a smirk, _he may be able to pull this off after all._

That thought is immediately proven wrong when Izuku takes one final steadying breath and begins to walk. He makes it to the next tree a few dozen feet away and turns around about to strut back to Katsuki when he stops due to his audience now being on the ground howling with laughter.

Now, don't get him wrong, Katsuki wanted him to do well, seriously. He wanted Izuku to do well so he wouldn't look like a spaz for however long they were stuck like this, but Katsuki simply couldn't help himself after seeing Deku's sad ass attempt at his stride.

"I know geriatrics that make walking look less painful than that Deku, are you serious right now?" he manages to ask between hysterics.

"What?" Izuku huffs out as he makes his way back over to Katsuki, cheeks ablaze. "That's exactly how you walk! Laid back, loose stride, open gate, one hand in a pocket, holding your bag on the other shoulder, resting 'I hate the world' face…what did I miss?"

Katsuki blinks. Had he really been paying that close of attention to him over the years? He was spot on with everything he had just said. And Katsuki might have even been impressed if not for his absolutely piss poor delivery of his walking habits.

"You're in your head way too much you damn nerd," Katsuki says as he makes his way up off the grass and back into Izuku's personal space.

He takes his pointer finger and smooths out the crease forming between his blonde eyebrows. "This right here. You can tell you're overthinking, it's written all over your face. And you talk about being relaxed but you were stiff as a board. Also, it wouldn't kill you to show even an ounce of confidence. Do you see the body you're in?! People literally cower in my presence, use that as fuel."

Katsuki is almost positive Izuku stopped listening the moment he touched his face, if the shocked look still playing in his features long after he had finished his critiques was any indication. His cheeks were now dusted a slight pink and his lips had parted as he tried to hide the quick breathes he was taking in, hoping Katsuki wouldn't notice.

"Oi, idiot, are you even listening?" He gently slaps Deku's cheek a few times.

"Mhm," Deku replies almost dreamily, "confidence, don't over think, hot body makes people cower..."

This gets all of Katsuki's attention, "I'm sorry, what?"

"Hmm?"

"You were saying something about my hot body?"

Izuku's shakes his head furiously, coming out of whatever trance he was in, "What! No! I was just repeating what you said!"

"I didn't say anything about my body being sexy," Katsuki laughs, thoroughly enjoying getting Deku riled up.

"I said 'hot' not sexy!" Izuku wails, Katsuki's poor face becoming a shade of red he'd only ever seen on himself after just nearly dying chocking on a piece of pork a couple years back. He found it hilarious.

"So you do admit to calling me hot then, perv," Katsuki teases. "You wouldn't be taking advantage of this situation we've found ourselves in, would you now?"

"I-" Izuku tries to defend himself but draws a blank for words, the entirety of his upper half becoming uncomfortably hot.

"Relax," Katsuki chuckles, "I won't tell anyone you think I'm a god among men," he waves it off, pushing through Izuku starting up more objections, "I still have yet to hear any cursing though, I believe I asked for obscenities."

Izuku just stares at him, unable to keep up with the whirlwind that was Kacchan's line of thinking. Having just gone through a rather embarrassing moment of semi-confession, Izuku is finding it extremely difficult to focus on what he's supposed to be doing. Katsuki brings him back to the present with one more small hit to the face.

"Swear, Deku," Katsuki demands, "now. Cuss me out."

"I…" Izuku starts then sighs, "I can't Kacchan, cursing just isn't my thing," he whispers sheepishly.

"Yeah no shit, every time I say anything above PG-13 rating in this body it feels like my mouth's physically incapable of forming the word, it's fucking irritating. Why do you think I've cut back on cursing so much?"

"You mean to tell me this is your cursing cut back?" Izuku asks incredulously.

"Hey don't be an ass, I'm working hard over here trying to be your G rated self. Anyway we're getting off track. If you can't full on cuss me out then we'll start with single words. Say 'shit'," Katsuki instructs.

Izuku takes a deep breath "Ok," he closes his eyes, "Ok, shi-, ugh, shi-it, shit," he finishes flatly, looking out of one eye to gauge Katsuki's reaction. Needless to say he was incredibly unimpressed.

"That was the weakest shit I've ever seen, Deku, come on man," he drags his hands down his face, "this is trade mark Katsuki behavior, you can't just not cuss, you realize that, right?" He advises heatedly.

"I know," Izuku responds, mildly irritated at Katsuki's need to point out the obvious.

"People are definitely going to think something is up if we don't pull this together soon," he continues, goading Deku on to test out a theory he's been mulling over.

"I know," Izuku grinds out this time, anger rising.

"Do you? Because it's seems like you're just pussyfooting around. And here I was thinking you'd started to grow a pair."

"I'm trying my best asshole! Fuck you!" Izuku immediately slaps his hands over his mouth, surprised at his outburst.

Katsuki is taken aback but smiles approvingly, "Yes! I knew it!"

"I don't know why I just said that. I got angry and it's like the words just flew out of me!" Izuku tries to explain.

"Yeah, I was trying to piss you off. Once I realized it was hard for me to cuss in this body because it's not something _your_ body recognizes I figured since I cuss the most when I'm angry it would become second nature to react with cursing if I pushed your buttons a little in _my_ body," he states matter-of-factly.

"That actually…made a lot of sense," Izuku says, removing his hands from over his mouth.

"Hell yeah it did, 'cause I'm a fucking genius, thank you."

Izuku rolls his eyes, but immediately starts talking to himself under his breath trying to piece things together, "So we originally thought we switched bodies, but it seems our bodies still respond to their normal triggers…so did we really switch bodies or just consciousnesses within our bodies…"

"Stop the muttering shit, if you've got something to say share it with the whole class," Katsuki says while punching Izuku in the shoulder.

Izuku blinks out of his trance to rub the spot, "Ow, it's nothing Kacchan just trying to make sense of things," he replies.

"You think our bodies still respond to their original consciousness' triggers and not whatever consciousness' is in our body currently?" Katsuki pushes on anyway, despite Deku's attempt to move on from his revelation.

"Something like that…" Izuku ponders a bit more before Katsuki replies with, "That would explain a lot then. Like why I started blushing and hyperventilating when I saw round face this morning coming out of the bathroom, that was your stupid body reacting to her, not me; but similar things happen whenever I'm around you in my body, so I'm not sure how that works…."

Izuku coughs to cut Katsuki off, looking away, quick to change the subject.

"Is there anything else? I'll keep working to get the walk down and we now know I can curse, happy?"

Katsuki shrugs his shoulders and starts to head towards class, which Izuku could only assume was a yes to his question. He falls behind Katsuki, grateful to not be under his watchful eye any longer.

They continue for a minute or so before Izuku asks, "So you get to judge and criticize, but I'm just supposed to have faith that you'll do a decent job being me? No questions asked?"

Katsuki glances over his shoulder with a mischievous smirk, "Watch this."

He proceeds to hunch his shoulder slightly, gnawing on his lower lip periodically, eyes taking on an innocent wonder, the smug look on his face transforming into an expression that made him look not only approachable but non threatening. He begins to walk in small hurried steps, his hands moving from worrying the straps of his backpack to tugging at the hem of his uniform jacket, all the while muttering to himself.

Katsuki stops a good distance away and turns around prepared to walk back but then sees the astonished expression on Deku's face and takes this as confirmation he'd been spot on. He switches from insecure Deku to cocky Katsuki in an instant and does his best final curtain bow.

"Like I said—easy," he repeats his word from earlier, standing up, turning his back to Deku and taking up his normal stride. He continues to stalk off without a reply from the boy he'd just imitated perfectly, leaving a very stunned Deku in his wake.

Izuku recovers quickly and chases after Katsuki yelling, "I have notes!" Though it's only to help his own ego, not wanting to be the only one struggling in the other's body.

Katsuki cackles in response, shaking his head, not believing for a second his Izuku imitation wasn't Oscar worthy at the very least. And how could it not be? He'd only been curiously watching the kid all his life…


	6. Izuku & Katsuki vs Class 1-A

"No! For the love of—are you even paying attention?! Like this!"

Izuku sighs, wondering how this walk to class had not only drug on for so long, but had also seemed to bring out an even more impatient side of Kacchan than he was privy to.

Izuku was more than fed up with his attitude for the day and the sun had barely broken the horizon. He still watched attentively, however, as Kacchan showed him, for the millionth time, how to mimic his movements.

Kacchan was putting so much emphasis on his stalking, giving step by step instructions, like he was showing a child how to do something, eliciting an irritated twitch to take up around Izuku's eyes.

"That's what I've been doing, Kacchan!" he yells suddenly, not being able to take his criticism any longer, "You're being way too picky right now," he huffs crossing his arms while continuing on with their trek to class.

"Picky, huh? Well, excuse the fuck out of me for wanting to make sure my reputation is left intact after…," Kacchan struggles to find the words, while Izuku waits, expression expectant and annoyed, "whatever the hell this is, dammit, you know what I'm trying to say!" he finishes angrily, with a _tch_ and roll of his eyes.

Izuku resists the urge to drag his hands down his face. They were going to be the death of each other.

"And you think that I'm not worried about mine?" he asks, his voice rising an octave, "You're not exactly doing me any favors! At least _I'm_ trying," he says giving the now shorter boy an accusatory glare.

"Here we go with the whining again," Katsuki mumbles angrily to himself before continuing, "Fine, nerd, what the fuck do I need to be working on?"

Izuku blinks, attempting to mask his surprise at Kacchan not only relenting to him, giving into his demand, but being civil about it?

"Um," Izuku starts intelligently, "ok, well, you need to seriously forget about the cursing, and a smile wouldn't kill you. Also you need to figure out a way to talk to others that doesn't consist of snarling and grunting. That may work for you, but '_Izuku'_ doesn't behave like a feral animal."

"You little shi-," Izuku doesn't let him finish.

"You're listening now. Hush."

"_Who_ the _fu_-," Izuku slaps a hand over his mouth and watches Kacchan's eyes bulge, hostility rolling off him in waves.

"What did I just say about profanity? And you're still growling at me right now. You being able to walk the walk means nothing. I'm more than my timid tendencies, Kacchan," he concludes, eyes earnest, tone stern.

Katsuki seems to be taken aback by the sudden seriousness in Izuku's voice. His facial expression softens ever so slightly as he takes Izuku in with those large mossy eyes. Izuku's stomach flips at subtle change in his features.

But just as quickly as it appears it evaporates from his face. Kacchan lets out one final grumble before ripping out from under Izuku's hand.

"Fucking _fine_," Kacchan all but spits through clenched teeth, absolutely livid.

Izuku was surprised at the lack of resistance on Kacchan's part to agree to his wishes, but he was appreciative nonetheless. He knew he was tiptoeing a very delicate line right now, but he was over Kacchan's superior attitude. If they were going to get through this then they both had to be putting forth effort, so Izuku wasn't going to let him off so easily.

"Good," Izuku agrees, "we have a couple more minutes before class, you can critique me a bit more and we'll work on how you're going to approach people like a normal human being, sound like a plan?"

Kacchan gives him a slanted glower but doesn't openly object to the idea.

Izuku continues forward towards class, practicing his walk while Kacchan would stop him and demonstrate what he needed to fix. Eventually they were both walking side by side, strutting, while Izuku forced Kacchan to smile, laugh, and dared him to go two sentences without swearing.

It was no doubt a scene to behold, the two boys owning the sidewalk with a trademark Katsuki swagger while forcing out strained laughs. _We probably look ridiculous_, Izuku thinks to himself, wistfully adding, _but at least he's trying_.

As Kacchan is working through another strained practice conversation, trying to use his hands the way Izuku always did, he notices twinkling in his peripheral. He slowly turns to see Aoyama sauntering beside him.

"_Bonjour_ friends!" he greets in his tinkling voice, smile too bright, as he strode in tandem with the duo.

Kacchan only grunts, prepared to ignore their annoying classmate, and turns back to Izuku to continue their lesson when he hears Aoyama begin to hum, still walking with them.

Izuku notices Kacchan tense, visibly irritated, and whip his head around towards the sparkling hero, to see the smiley blonde framing his face with his hands.

"What the fu-…," Kacchan takes a deep breath, "what do you think you're doing?" He says in the calmest voice he can muster, though you could hear the restrained rage and impatience behind his words.

"Vogue-ing! What? You two are the only ones allowed to have all the fun gracing the sidewalk? You know I live to shine," he replies with a giggle, then continues on with the tune he'd been humming.

"Um, is that Madonna?" Izuku asks.

Yes! I'm impressed Bakugo! Who would've guessed you of all people would know 'Vogue'," he exclaims enthusiastically, "_magnifique_!"

Kacchan bore a murderous gaze into Izuku, "Yeah _Bakugo_, who would've guessed," he grinds out.

Izuku mouths a sorry while trying to hold back his laughter. He knew he had just broken character but this whole situation, Aoyama thinking they were cat walking, joining them, believing even for a moment that Kacchan knew who Madonna was, was pure comedy.

Kacchan is about to say something when Aoyama cuts back in, "We should do this with the girls! A fashion show of sorts, hmm? I have the perfect soundtra-," Kacchan loses it then.

"We're not havin' a shitty fashion show you damn pansy! No strutting, no modeling, no soundtrack, no fucking 'Vogue-ing', no girls, no nothin'! Now get the fuck out of my face, all this damn sparkling is literally blinding me, for fuck's sake."

Aoyama falters in his stride, face in utter shock after hearing something so hostile and hurtful come out of Izuku's mouth.

Izuku elbows Kacchan, _hard_, in the ribs, eliciting a sharp intake of breath. Kacchan turns towards Izuku, eyes ablaze, ready to continue with his expletives when he catches Izuku's fierce scowl.

Realizing he, too, had just broken character, Kacchan attempts to save face.

"I – uh – sorry Twinkle Toes, I guess?" He looks back to Izuku and shrugs looking for guidance. Izuku shoots him another savage look before addressing Aoyama himself, "I'm sure the girls would love a fashion show Aoyama, you should definitely pitch the idea."

Aoyama practically trips over himself after hearing who he believed to be Bakugo talking to him in such a gentle and reassuring way.

"_Qui_, I think they would too…," he agrees hesitantly, looking between the two uneasily.

"Think who would what?" Ochacko asks from right behind Kacchan, causing him to jump.

"Jesus Christ! Warn a guy or somethin'!"

"Oh, I'm sorry Deku!" She apologizes earnestly, looking concerned.

Izuku watched as Kacchan flushed from head to toe, no doubt due to being in such close proximity to the girl, what with her torso leaned into his space and chest poked out as she ruffled his hair. Izuku was sure his body was failing to function right now, glad he wasn't having to deal with it.

But seeing them this way through Kacchan's eyes, close together, Kacchan's now freckled cheeks darkening, Ochako's ears turning pink, set something off inside Izuku. His blood pressure spiked watching the two young heroes interact. _Am I having a heart attack_, Izuku thinks to himself. _Why is his body reacting like this? Does he really hate us this much?_

Izuku snaps back to reality when he hears Kacchan now screaming at Iida, who had also managed to sneak up on him as he was distracted by Ochacko.

"Do either of you know how to make your presence known, huh? Sneaky little fuc-," Kacchan stops himself, clamping his mouth shut to glare at the two new additions to their walking group. Working hard to keep up his Izuku facade. "I'm out of here," he says, fleeing from the growing crowd.

Izuku watches as Ochacko pouts at his abrupt exit, longingly looking after him before chasing to catch up, and his vision begins to dim to red. He had to physically hold back a growl that threatened to cross his lips.

_Seriously? What the hell was this?_

He shakes his head to clear the vexed fog that had rolled in.

Seeing himself fall behind the pack he rushes to trail the other three, focusing on how everyone is attempting to make small talk with Kacchan and thoroughly avoiding any kind of interaction with himself, believing the two were still their same old selves.

Izuku knew Kacchan was surely hating every second of attention he was receiving. He'd made it abundantly clear that he thinks very little of most of his classmates and went out of his way to make sure they didn't bother him.

Despite the switched roles at the moment, though, Kacchan seemed to be taking his mission seriously, which made Izuku's heart do a small flip. _He really is actually trying_…

They finally make it to class. Ochacko and Aoyama now excitedly whispering plans for an all dorms fashion show, while Iida is talking Kacchan's ear off about some updated part of the school manual.

Izuku can see the aggravated vein popping out of Kacchan's temple, forming from the sheer concentration to not annihilate their class representative.

Momo gave Kacchan an opportunity to escape when she pulled Iida aside to ask him something. He wasted no time bee lining to where Izuku stood across the hall, not yet having made his way into class.

"I'm ready to die by my own hand, go ahead, blow my face in," Kacchan states, "I can't do this. I almost had an aneurysm trying to have a five minute conversation with fucking glasses, and if that goofy chick rubs up against me one more time I'm going to absolutely lose it. How do you live not having any personal space? How do you live breaking out into a sweat every time she walks into your line of sight? It is _exhausting_ being you, and I've only been stuck like this for about, what? An hour?"

"Are you done?" Izuku asks after Kacchan's long winded rant.

Kacchan narrows his eyes in response, about to retort when Iida made the announcement that class was about to start.

Everyone ushers into the classroom but the two boys.

"Ok," Izuku takes a steadying breath, "we can do this, right?" He looks down at Kacchan who snorts a laugh before turning on his heel to head towards the entrance.

"It's just class, Deku, relax," he says. Izuku nods moving to follow but stops short again.

"Hey, Kacchan? I just wanted to let you know that you actually did an ok job being me around my friends. I mean it was only for a few minutes, and I'm sure they're still concerned, poor Aoyama," he shakes his head remembering the look on his face, "but…thanks, you know, for trying," he says keeping his eyes low, before looking up to meet Kacchan's.

"You're fucking embarrassing," he finally says, blush creeping up his cheeks.

Izuku knows that's the best reaction he's going to get from the emotionally constipated enigma that was Katsuki, so he takes it in stride. A smile on his lips as he follows Kacchan to the door.

They're just about to pass the threshold of the classroom when Iida pops up in front of them.

"What are you two doing?!" he yells, catching the whole classes attention, "Class begins in _exactly_ thirty seconds and you haven't even made it to your desks yet! If Aizawa sees you up and about, there will be hell to pay!"

Izuku mumbles an apology at the same time Kacchan responds with a _fuck off asshole, you aren't at your desk either._

The classroom goes pen drop quiet as every pair of eyes bulges, each face gawking at Bakugo _apologizing_ and Midoriya telling his own friend off, with swearing, no less.

Izuku and Kacchan don't take any notice as they make their way to the far side of the room. Izuku sits in the second desk from the front, as he always does. He moves to set his backpack down when he feels a smack upside the head.

"Oi," Kacchan whispers in a loud hiss, "that's _my_ seat, _Kacchan_," he says his nickname in a nasally, snot nosed voice, a poor imitation of Izuku.

"Did you really have to whack me?" Izuku hisses back irritated, rubbing the spot.

"Just get out of the fucking seat already, loser," Kacchan says heatedly.

"I am, can you back up? Jeez." Izuku replies in exasperation as he moves to stand toe to toe with Kacchan.

They continue to bicker until Todoroki's smooth, controlled voice cuts through the classroom.

"Ok, I'm just going to say it. I'm almost positive I've woken up in a Twilight Zone. Am I the only one seeing this?"

The entire class collectively started talking over each other at once, the volume level roaring up in a split second.

"Dude! Yes! I thought it was just me!" Denki answers.

Ochacko nods her head, "Deku has been acting on edge all morning and Bakugo is almost...tame? I-."

"Midoryia snapped at me on our way to class and Bakugo was friendly, to _me_ of all people _and_ _even talked to me about Modonna_! I was _tres concerne_," Aoyama chimes in nervously.

"Midoryia yelled _and_ cursed at me, too, as you saw, quite out of character, and I have yet to hear an apology," Iida adds, sticking his nose in the air, arms crossed.

Kirishima stands up abruptly, his chair obnoxiously scrapping the floor as he did so, causing the class to stop and listen, "I wasn't going to say anything, but my bro was crying earlier. I think he's going through something guys, so just leave him alone!" He yells in a reprimanding tone, attempting to defend his friend's honor but instead actually airing his dirty laundry to the entire class.

The uproar that ensues after the final comment is deafening.

Kacchan turns away from the mayhem to look Izuku right in the eye. Izuku saw nothing but pure, unadulterated ire.

"You. _Cried_. In. Front. Of. Kirishima." He enunciates, clipping off each word, eye twitching, moving in to corner him. "You're dead."

Izuku raises his hands in defensive, flailing them around as he attempted to explain the situation while he backed away, "I-, it was an accident! He surprised me! Uh- mirror, alarm clock, penis! ," his voice cracks on the last word as it rose several octaves.

Kacchan has him by the shirt at this point bringing his fist up while the class loses it behind them.

"What the hell is going on in here?" Aizawa asks, irritation evident in every word.

The class immediately fell silent as their teacher dragged himself into the room. All mouths shut, Kacchan released Izuku, and every head snapped forward in attention.

Iida moved to stand and respond when Aizawa catches the two boys standing in the corner and cuts off his brown nosing to interrogate them.

"What are you two doing here? I explicitly remember putting both of you on house arrest," he says, raising a brow expectantly, waiting on an answer.

Impressed that it was possible, Izuku saw Kacchan's glare towards him deepen, "I fucking _told_ you we shouldn't have come to class, stupid asshole," he whispers venom dripping from each word. _Well we had a moment...and then Kirishima happened. _Izuku sighs before replying.

"I _forgot_ Kacchan, we both did, give me break," Izuku whispers back sharply.

The whole room ignites again as everyone responds with a shocked "_WHAT_?!" They all begin shouting out questions at simultaneously.

Aizawa, now irate, activates his quirk. The menacing stare down he has with the class being enough to get everyone to instantly close their mouths again. _His quirk really is perfect for an educator, just scary enough to get teenagers to listen_, Izuku ponders, analyzing powers even while being reamed out in front of the class.

Aizawa turns back to the boys, "You two. Up here. _Now_," he motions to the podium he now stood behind, face deadpan.

They both move to the front of the room, heads bowed in respect, to receive their teacher's reprimands.

"Meet me in my office at the end of the day," he whispers, so the rest of the class couldn't hear, before saying in a louder voice, "Don't let me catch you in here again before your sentences are up. And that dorm better be spotless come nightfall. Understood? You're dismissed."

They both stare at him in surprise before hustling out of the classroom, not wanting to further upset the intimidating pro, and make their way back to the dorms.

Izuku couldn't help but fret the whole way back, _what could he possibly want to talk about?_


	7. Katsuki is Bad at Feelings

Katsuki irritably swiped at the now damp curls beginning to stick to his forehead, silently cursing Deku for having such undisciplined hair, and making a mental note to never complain about his explosive spikes ever again.

The duo had made it halfway back across campus in silence, save for the stream of muttering that never seemed to stop flying out of Deku's mouth.

Katsuki rolled his eyes for what felt like the hundredth time that day. However, now that he had come down from the adrenaline rush that was realizing he was in control of someone else's body, he began to take notice just how much that eye roll made his head split.

He swayed ever so slightly from the new light headed feeling that had just set in. He noticed his back and left arm next, each screaming in pain. Legs following soon after, not fairing any better.

"Fuck, I feel like I was hit with a train," Katsuki snarls, "What the hell is up with your weak ass body, nerd?"

Izuku stops his muttering to turn and give Katsuki a quizzical look, "Kacchan, you literally slammed me into the concrete from ten stories up," Izuku answers, annoyed, "you also kicked me in the face, punched me in the gut which then resulted in me being slammed into metal railing, and used full force explosions on me at point blank range. Did you think I was just going to be able to function normally the day after?"

Katsuki chuckles evilly remembering the pain he had inflicted, but it's quickly cut off by a sharp intake of breathe from the movement causing an unbelievable pain to come from his bruised ribs.

"Yeah, I kicked your ass," he tries to cockily reply, but it comes out pained and winded as he rubs his sore abdomen.

Izuku side eyes him incredulously, "You _barely_ won," he scoffs.

Katsuki slowly turns to look Deku straight in the face, "What?" He barely manages to grind out.

"You heard me. Sure, you got in a few good hits in the beginning, when I was trying to stop the fight, but once I leveled up you were done for," Izuku chuckled.

"All I'm hearing is that you leveled up and still _lost_," Katsuki retorts, attempting to feign indifference as he looked away from the smug boy beside him.

Katsuki knew he had hardly made it out of that battle victorious and to have that fact thrown in his face was borderline mortifying. He'd spent _years_honing and developing his quirk just to have Deku come into All Might's power, develop it, and _pass_ him in just a few short months.

The whole ordeal made Katsuki's blood boil.

He continued looking away from Deku so as not to let him see the bitter look he was sure had twisted up his face in an ugly way.

"I _barely_ lost. And to be honest with you I wasn't even using One for All at max capacity, so you almost lost to me not even at my _peak_ yet. Your body feels like crap right now too, by the way, and that's just from me using a small percentage of my quirk on you!" Izuku laughs gleefully, seeming to hype himself up about how he had sparred with someone who he had looked up to for so long and _almost_ won, not necessarily trying to tear Katsuki down.

The words still made Katsuki's heart drop like a rock anyway. _He really is passing me…_

Katsuki shakes off the sobering thought and shoves past Izuku, knocking their shoulders together as he reaches the dorms. He's working hard to keep his signature 'fuck with me and die' face straight, but he can feel it wavering.

He storms through the threshold to the common area not stopping to justify Izuku's statement with an answer, in fear that he may slip up and say something he'd regret later, something that would make him sound as weak as he felt.

"Aw, Kacchan I'm sorry, don't be upset! You did still beat me after all. You're still better!" Izuku says reassuringly, working to stroke Katsuki's fragile ego.

"Don't coddle me, shithead," he barks, with little to no bite, "I know I won, and I know it was a close fight, that's why I'm going to do my damnedest to beat you for the number one title, you hear me?!"

Izuku blinks, then smiles warmly, "Yeah, Kacchan, I hear you."

Katsuki sneered at his placating tone, before whipping around toward the elevator.

"Where are you going?" Izuku asks, coming up behind him.

"I'm going to change, and to get some goddam peace and quiet for a few seconds. Don't follow me or I'm seriously going to lose my shit," he states firmly, making one final effort to squash the inner feelings of dread beginning to mirror on his face, to look Izuku in the eyes to show just how serious he was about being left alone.

Izuku raises his hands in surrender, "Fine, I'll just, uh, I guess I'll change too and start in the kitchen?"

Katsuki is already stalking off, eyes low, hands shoved in his pockets, when he replies with a defeated, "Whatever."

One of Katsuki's biggest stress relievers was destroying his perfectly put together room.

The whole process helped him satiate his rage in a controlled setting, without blowing anything up. It was the easiest way for him work through his feelings. By wrecking the room he channeled his inner turmoil, and he'd then be able to calm down after the fact, now having the pent up energy released. And ultimately, this made him feel better, as pieced not only his room back together afterward, but his sanity.

He'd never been a man of words, always a man of action. Talking shit out was painful and difficult. Wrecking things was uncomplicated and undemanding of his inner feelings, which was just how he liked it.

He thought of nothing else but demolishing Izuku's room as he made his way up to his new home for fuck knew how long. Once he rushed through the door he moved to begin his fool proof method to de-stress, but came to an abrupt stop once seeing what lie in front of him.

He glanced around the small space and let out an animalistic snarl. He knew from earlier that it wasn't as clean as his own room, but he hadn't fully registered just how unkempt it actually was.

The room was already in disarray. Papers were everywhere, littering the floor, desktop, drawers, even the foot of his bed. Pens and pencils were also scattered around, as well as laundry and shoes.

_Is he serious with this shit? There are toddlers with tidier rooms! _

Furious that he now has no readily available way of riding himself of these complicated feelings, he makes for the dressers on the far wall, deciding to move on to his original task of changing clothes, angrily kicking anything in his path out of the way.

Opening one of the draws he finds a pair of athletic shorts and a faded All Might T-shirt and snatches them out, pausing in his muted curses when he feels the shirt. He shakes his head and scoffs, looking at the worn article of clothing and wondering just how many times Deku had put in on over the years to get such a baby soft feel to it.

_Stupid fanboy._

He moves to strip out of the uniform and falters, holding himself back after he caught his reflection in the floor length mirror across the room.

He'd managed to avoid seeing himself so far, deliberately giving a wide birth to the reflective glass, but now seeing Deku's eyes staring back at him he knew he was fucked.

Ever since they had come back from their internships Katsuki had found it almost impossible to be in the same room as Deku without his traitorous body committing mutiny in some way or another.

It had started when he'd seen Deku using Full Cowl for the first time. Flipping through the air effortlessly, mimicking Katsuki's own movements, the powerful aura coming off of him, the raw energy Deku was exuding, made every hair on Katsuki's body stand on in. And it had absolutely nothing to do with Deku's electric quirk.

It was like he was seeing a whole new Deku, and despite every alarm sounding in his brain to ignore the reaction, Katsuki's body had other ideas. And things just continued to go downhill even more quickly after he'd seen Deku in action again when he'd rescued him from the League of Villains.

Now every time those enormous, bright eyes graced Katsuki with their undivided attention his stomach would do flips, a blush creeping to his cheeks. Whenever Deku smiled or laughed Katsuki suddenly wasn't able to catch his breath. He'd happen to brush up against him? Katsuki's knees would go weak.

_Soft,_ He thought to himself bitterly, _so fucking weak._

He thought back to their fight at ground Beta and how it ended with him on top of Deku, sucking in blessed oxygen, a breathless Deku underneath him. Watching him level up had been enough to get Katsuki…ehm, excited, but being on top of him, their breath intermingling, almost pushed Katsuki to his breaking point. Who knows what would've happened in the heat of the moment if All Might hadn't showed up. Katsuki silently thanked the symbol of peace for the interruption, _he really is the number one hero, saving me from making an ass out of myself._

Katsuki couldn't stand this new side of himself that had reared its ugly head in the past few weeks. He couldn't stand Deku even more for being the reason behind its development.

So, yeah, he'd been avoiding the mirror. Because he knew despite teasing Deku about taking advantage of their situation, he _knew_ that he was much more likely to be the one committing that crime.

The images his mind would come up with for him were insane. Little flashes of the forest haired boy pressed up against him, eyes hooded with lust or up under him flushed with desire, would pop up at _the_ _worst_ possible times. Like when he'd be in class, looking off into space as Aizawa droned on about hero history or some shit, or when he'd be watching the other boy in training sessions. Having to excuse himself to clear his thoughts and rid himself of the all-consuming _nightmare_ that was Deku.

Having Deku's body at his disposal like this was a dangerous game for Katsuki. He'd been fighting with himself internally for weeks now in attempt to effectively squash these annoying ass feelings he had for the nerd, trying to chalk it up adrenaline or a brain tumor or something plausible like that.

But now that he had Deku's body to do with what he pleased like this, he found his control slipping on the idea that he could shoo away how he felt about the boy, as he walked up to the mirror, unbuttoning the uniform shirt he wore with jittery fingers.

He took a shaky breath as he shucked the shirt off and dropped his pants to the floor, stepping out of them, now dressed only in Deku's briefs.

Katsuki looked at the form in front of him curiously, moving closer to examine it thoroughly.

He ran his hands through Deku's pillow soft curls, marveling at the downy-like texture, it was a tangled mess due to Katsuki's attempt at taming earlier, but it was still long and lush. He admired how bulky he'd gotten in the past few months, eyes lingering on his beefy legs and developed pecs…_why the fuck does he wear all this baggy shit if he's sporting all this?_

Deku's freckles ran down his torso as well, Katsuki hadn't known that, sprinkled down his throat and intermittently across his chest. He also had scars, so many scars. All over his arms and hands, Katsuki had seen those, but not the others cutting deep across his shoulders, his back….

Katsuki couldn't help the urge to murder whoever had, had the nerve to have done this to the fucking ray of sunshine that was Izuku Midoriya as he reached out to trail a particularly nasty wound that seemed much fresher than the rest.

His stomach plummeted as he realized he was the reason behind the angry looking mark now branding itself into Deku's side, the result of Katsuki's impromptu attack last night. And then the rage he hadn't been able to expel earlier roared up again with a vengeance.

Pissed at All Might for choosing Deku, at Deku for passing him and making him feel things he had no business feeling, but pissed at himself most of all for hurting the little asshole and not being able to sort through all the _shit_ that was swarming through his brain right now, Katsuki punches the mirror and watches it shatter before him.

Breathing hard he blinks out of the haze of red that had stained his vision and notices his fragmented reflection in the pieces of glass still attached to the base of the mirror, the rest of it now on the floor, and the bloody hand dripping by his side.

"_Fuck_," he hisses, "shit, shit, shit."

He rushes to the bathroom to clean up the wound. He was washing the blood off the gash so he could wrap it when he looked up into another mirror, aggravated at the situation he had put himself in, he spoke to himself, "You're a fucking idiot," he says, watching the way Deku's mouth moved, his face drawn up in an expression Katsuki hardly ever saw it in – disdain.

Not liking it at all, especially directed towards himself, Katsuki smoothed out the face staring back at him, going for a textbook Izuku beam. Eyes crinkling at the edges as he smiled wide, head tilted to the side in amusement.

It was unnerving to Kastuki just how much he'd been observing the smaller boy, he was scaring _himself_ with this shit.

But seeing his face up close now, the sunlight filtering in from the window hitting those jade eyes, causing them to sparkle, and his smile lighting up the room the rest of the way, Katsuki knew he was oh, so, royally screwed.

He knew if he were in his body right now it would no doubt be malfunctioning looking at the obnoxiously sweet little dweebs grin, glitching after noticing the gleam in his eyes…

Katsuki stills at the thought, mind reeling as he watched his face go pallid, listening to the water still trickling from the turned on faucet.

Each thought pops into his head individually, every one worse than the last. Panic rising after each realization.

_He's in my body._

_He's experiencing what my body reacts to._

_My body reacts to him._

_I'm in his body._

_I've been acting like him…_

He thinks back to everything that had transpired so far that day. Flinching when realizing just how many instances Deku may have felt Katsuki's body's reactions.

_You stared him down in the kitchen, that probably stirred something, those big ass eyes, goddamit! Then you touched his face to get him to stop making that annoyingly distracting 'concentrating' look of his, not good, physical contact NOT GOOD. What else Katsuki, what else…_

Fucking Round Face.

"FUCK!" Katsuki screams, "Oh, holy shit, there is no way in _hell_ he saw 'Deku' and Ochacko together and didn't notice me basically foaming at the mouth," he mumbles to himself, having shut off the sink, and now pacing the bathroom floor in nothing but underwear, hand still leaking.

_Deku's not an idiot…well not a complete idiot, he's definitely noticed. But there's no way he thinks _I_ like him right? The kid basically bolts every time I come near him out of fear…yeah, yeah, I just need to not act like the goofy nerd anymore, I can do that! I just can't smile, or laugh…or look at him…or touch him…or be around others...or…exist basically._

_Fucking HELL!_

Katsuki picks up the clothes he had picked out, stuffed his legs into the shorts, drug the shirt down over his head, wrapped up his hand, and flopped onto the bed, staring at the ceiling, unseeing.

He absent mindedly began rubbing on the hem of the unbelievably soft shirt, the action calming him down ever so slightly. Feeling the velvety fabric between his fingers felt like a warm hug, a soft caress, reassuring and safe. Within a couple minutes Katsuki had almost completely relaxed.

_This is definitely Deku's dumb ass reaction, what kind of man-child calms down by rubbing a fucking shirt?_

But even as he thought it, Katsuki was plotting on how to steal the magical article of clothing for himself once they got back to their own bodies, because this was so much more effective than him wanting to destroy things.

No mess, no clean up, no screaming, no cursing. Just petting a ratty old shirt and he'd all but become one with the bed, completely Zen.

He now understood why Deku fiddled with all of his clothes when he was anxious, or nervous, or upset, and he smiled at the idea of understanding some of Deku a little more; before cursing himself for caring about any of the little shit's quirks at all.

He sighed miserably at the conflicting battle going on between his head and his, ugh, _heart_, gross.

_So this is what it feels like to be in deep shit, huh?_

"Fuck meeee."


	8. Izuku & Katsuki vs Aizawa

Izuku was doubled over on the floor, the cheap carpet of the dorm hallway digging into his cheek, as the sharp pain shooting through his body from the hit to the groin elicited a strangled groan to drag from his lips.

He honestly had no idea how the situation had taken such a sharp left. Granted the whole day had been one disaster after the other, but currently it had seemed to be going smoothly (or as smoothly as something like this can go)… that is, until Kacchan had woken up in his arms.

Needless to say he was not very excited about being held princess style, if the position Izuku was now in presently was any indication.

"Don't. _Ever_. Touch me. Again," Kacchan spat from above him, before turning and stalking off down the hallway.

Kirishima burst back into the corridor from the stairwell then, with most of the class in toe. Once the red head saw 'Deku' up and moving he let out a relieved sigh that turned into an almost hysterical laugh, "You're alive! Thank _God_, I thought-," Kacchan shoved his hand in Kirishima's face and slammed him against the wall with a snarled, "Back the fuck up or die."

The whole group could only gape at him slack jawed, heads moving slowly to watch him continue on to his room, open the door and slam it _hard_.

"What the hell was _THAT_?!" Denki yelled, breaking the stunned silence. But before anyone could answer Izuku groaned again.

The group's attention was immediately drawn to the boy, who was still struggling on the ground, now shifting to try and sit up. The state of shock that had washed over the teens only intensified when they saw who they believed to be Bakugo writhing on the floor after an altercation with who they thought to be Midoriya.

The silence that took over the hallway was deafening, and Izuku began to squirm at the uncomfortable feeling of having so many sets of eyes on him, all visibly working to connect dots in an attempt to achieve some semblance of understanding about what was going on.

And not for the first time that day Izuku felt tears begin to prick at the corners of his eyes. His bottom lip began to tremble at the effort of keeping the tidal wave of emotions crashing against his restraint at bay.

Mineta took notice, "Holy shit, Kirishima wasn't lying! He's about to cry! Look!"

And that's all it took. Everything hit him all at once. This ridiculous situation he'd been put in with the one person who's been praying on his downfall, the embarrassment, the full body soreness, their troubling talk with Aizawa earlier, the overwhelming amount of emotions he felt (both his and Kacchan's body's), and finally the twelve sets of eyes gawking at him, waiting to see if Bakugo Katsuki was capable of showing any actual human emotion other than rage.

The tears fell freely.

Once again Denki is the one to break the silence, bringing his fingertips up to his temples as if the friction would allow his brain to fully understand what he was seeing, but still failing to grasp the reality of the situation, "What. The. _Hell_. Is._ HAPPENING_?!"

Izuku let loose a sob he couldn't control from racking through him, in response. Which, in turn, forced the hallway to descend even further into chaos.

Everything had begun to take a turn for the worse when Kacchan had made his way back downstairs after changing. It had literally taken him forever, and when he did finally join Izuku he had a soaked through gauze wrapped around one of his hands.

Naturally, Izuku had asked what had happened and had fully expected a sneer, or obscenities to be thrown his way in return, but instead all he got an indignant shrug.

The rest of the day had gone that way. Kacchan hadn't even batted an eye about what he had eaten for lunch in his body, which Izuku thought for sure would be a screaming match between the two of them after what had happened earlier that morning with the cereal. He also put up no fight in how they divvied up the chores. No threats about strangling him with the vacuum cord or smacking him upside the head with a frying pan…

It was…_weird_. Borderline alarming, how calm and distant Kacchan was being, reserved even.

Silence from Kacchan was considerably worse than shouting, Izuku decided. Shouting he was used to, what was expected, natural even. This silence felt like the calm before the storm, and it had Izuku all the way on edge. Or that's what he figured this pent up feeling was. He couldn't quite figure out why Kacchan's body was so high strung all of a sudden, but it didn't do anything to calm his own nerves.

_Maybe Aizawa makes him nervous and he's anxious about talking with him later?_

Izuku continued pondering the foreign sensations he was having until it came time for them to make their way to their meeting.

They'd finished cleaning for the day and were about to make their way over to Aizawa's office, as instructed, and were halfway there when Izuku had finally had enough of the silent treatment, "Ok, what gives?"

Kacchan looked over at him, confused and irritated, "What?"

"What's wrong? You went from being in my face all morning to barely grunting at me all afternoon."

"I thought you wanted me to leave you alone, nerd," he grumbles, bitterness coloring his tone, but Izuku couldn't help but notice that his anger wasn't really directed towards him, it seemed like it was directing towards Kacchan himself.

"I mean, yeah, but when have you ever listened to me?" Izuku asks, quirking a brow.

"Fuck you're hard to please. 'go away!', 'leave me alone!', 'talk to me!', 'acknowledge me!'" he says in a high pitched tone, "Needy ass. Maybe I just don't feel like talkin', is that a problem?" he dares.

Izuku rolls his eyes, "No, Kacchan, whatever. I never actually told you I wanted you to go away," he says, and despite the stubborn boy still avoiding eye contact and trying his hardest to remain aloof he notices Kacchan's ears perk at his words. _Odd_.

"I just wanted you to lay off. But if you don't want to talk fine, just please keep in mind that we are still supposed to be acting like one another and it's literally Aizawa's job to scrutinize us, so if anyone's going to be able to tell something is off it'd be him."

"I'm not an idiot," is his only response, and they fell back into a tense silence the rest of the way back to campus.

Reaching the office, they noticed the door was already ajar. Izuku peaked his head inside and saw Aizawa facing away from them, towards the large window on the opposite side of the room from where the last of the sun's rays were streaming in.

It looked like he was grading papers, so Izuku took the opportunity to face Kacchan and say, "Alright, so how about neither of us say anything until he tells us what he's called us in for, that way – hey," he snapped his fingers, "look at me, we need to think this through," Kacchan was literally looking anywhere but at Izuku and it was really starting to irritate him.

_I know he's pissed and would rather be in this situation with literally anyone else but Jesus, dude the only way we're getting through this is together!_

He'd never say this out loud, he knew Kacchan would lose it if Izuku suggested he needed help with _anything_, and let alone help from _himself_, forget about it.

Kacchan was still ignoring him though, now having moved on to focusing on Izuku's signature red sneakers.

Any other day Izuku would've been grateful if he wasn't the focus of Kacchan's attention, but today was not any other day, and Izuku was tired of whatever childish game Kacchan was playing. So he grabbed Kacchan's cheeks roughly with one hand and forced him to look him in the eye for the first time in hours.

Kacchan's now emerald eyes widened in shock, cheeks flushing, breath hitching at the unexpected physical contact and Izuku felt the strangest feeling wash over him as he looked into those sparkling orbs.

Relief? It was like having those large eyes grace him with their attention made the tension he'd been feeling all day release, he'd been pissed that Kacchan had been avoiding his gaze all day, his conversation, but now that their eyes were locked he felt…excited? No, nervous? Wait, anxious? He wasn't completely sure, because just like with any of Kacchan's body's reactions it was hard to pinpoint exactly what he was experiencing.

But he did understand the current tingle that shot up his spine at the feeling of those soft freckled cheeks under his fingertips. _Eager_. He was eager to feel more, he felt Kacchan's body urging him to touch more of the boy in front of him, his neck, his chest, arms, to see if everything was as soft as his face. A fleeting image of green and blond colliding in a heated blur crossed his mind.

_What the hell?_

"Ummm…" Izuku's voice had turned husky and he didn't understand why, breaths coming out short.

Izuku couldn't help but notice that Kacchan had dropped his gaze to Izuku's mouth when he uttered the unintelligent line, seemingly also affected by the trance Izuku had found himself in.

But as soon as Kacchan had looked back up to see Izuku's cheeks now staining pink and felt his hand now beginning to caress his face softly on their own accord, his eyes instantly turned steely, as if he'd just realized something unpleasant, and he smacked Izuku's hands off of him, "Don't fucking touch me," he growled, but it came out strained, and it sounded like he was…worried? Scared? No that couldn't be right.

Izuku blinked out of his daze as soon as Kacchan's eyes had lost their glimmer and had turned to something dark, no longer trapped by his stare once the boy went back to glaring at the ground.

"I wouldn't have to if you just listened to me," Izuku hissed, irritation returning.

"I am listening, dumbass," he spat.

"Then answer me!"

"Just get the fuck out of my face! I-," Aizawa's deadpan voice drifted into the hallway then.

"Are you two just going to bicker like five year olds outside of my office or are you going to come in?"

They glared at each other for a moment, the intensity of Kacchan's stare stirring those foreign feelings in him yet again, before Kacchan shoved past him and into the small office space.

"Sit down," Aizawa ordered, now facing the front of the room.

They did. Each taking up one of the two chair in front of his desk. The sunlight coming in from the back of the room was now almost completely shrouding Aizawa in shadows, making him look even more intimidating than normal as those onyx eyes looked them over.

The silence stretched on for an uncomfortable amount of time before Aizawa broke it, "So, how far along are you with this," he asked, gesturing vaguely at the boys.

They only stared at their teacher in front of them.

"Speak," Aizawa says exasperatedly, "where are you at with this?"

Izuku goes first, "What the f-fuck are you talking about?" he tried, he really did, but his voice had cracked despite his best effort.

Aizawa quirked an unimpressed eyebrow and Izuku could feel Kacchan glaring daggers from the side of him but he dared not look.

"We don't understand the question, sir," Kacchan spat out, still focused on Izuku so his irritation was not at all contained, failing to sound like Izuku at all.

_Wow. Three whole minutes. That's how long we can pretend to be one another in front of others. Perfect._

"Christ, you two are awful at this," Aizawa sighs, dragging his hand down his face, "I already know you two aren't yourselves, so please stop whatever this charade is, it's so painful to watch."

Both of the boys blanched, "You _know_?" they asked in tandem.

Aizawa waves off the question and states his again, moving around the desk to stroll around the room, "It's only been a day, so, what? All you know is that you aren't in your own body and what happens if you try to tell someone, right?" he asks, now behind the two of them.

The pair turns to stare at Aizawa, eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"What? What happens when we try to tell someone?" Izuku asks.

Aizawa flicks his eyes between the two of them, perplexed, "You haven't tried to tell anyone yet?"

"Fuck no, like I'd want anyone to know I'm in this weak ass body, what a joke," Kacchan says affronted, as if it were obvious.

Aizawa hits him in the back of the head, "Watch your mouth," he orders as he came to stand in from of the two, "So you haven't spoken to anyone about this yet? Interesting. I'd keep it that way if I were you. Makes life a lot easier," he warns.

Kacchan is still rubbing the back of his head when he asks, "What the fuck kind of ominous shit is that?" Earning a heated glare from Aizawa due to his choice of words, "Why can't others know? I mean don't get me wrong, I don't want them to, but I'd confide in the police if they might have a antidote or something for whatever dumbass Quirk is responsible for this bullshit," he grumbles crossing his arms.

"Oh, so you know it's the result of a Quirk?" he raises his brows, impressed.

"What the fuck else would it be?" Kacchan says, making a 'duh' face.

"Why do I need to keep reminding you about your language, do you even care who you're cursing at right now?" Aizawa asks, "I literally hold your future in my hands," He says, unamused.

Kacchan is no doubt about to throw more obscenities his way when Izuku cuts in, "You're just going to have to let that go, it's not personal, he's just the worst," he states with a shrug.

Kacchan gives a smug smile, "Exactly. The shitnerd gets it."

Izuku shoots him a look, and cuts off Aizawa's oncoming lecture, "I think we also know that we didn't really switch bodies, but rather consciousness? Like, we can still feel how the other's body reacts to their normal stimuli, if that makes sense."

Aizawa looks at him blankly.

"Sir?" Izuku asks after a moment.

"Sorry, it's just—you two are already so much further along than we were, it's kind of amazing."

Izuku chokes out a, "_You've gone through this_?" at the same time Kacchan screeches "_WE_?"

Kacchan shoots to his feet, "Alright, that's it. What the hell do you know? What is this? _Who_ did it? I'm gonna murder them," he growls, eyes wild.

"Calm down, Sparky," Aizawa says flatly, completely unaffected by his outburst, "I'll explain everything in time, some things you literally _have_ to figure out on your own though, like-"

"The only thing I care about is how to _end_ this, so if you aren't tellin' me how to do that then I'm going to go with my original idea to see if the police can do anything-"

"I'm telling you, you don't want to do that," Aizawa says, irritation flaring in his eyes.

"And why the hell not? You just tell us to do something with no explanation and expect _us_ of all people to just follow suit?" He says gesturing himself and Izuku still sitting.

Izuku has to nod his head in agreement at his words, the pair had never been keen on blindly following, well, anyone.

"Fine," Aizawa says, crossing his arms, "give it a try, hot shot, tell me you aren't you."

"Fine," Kacchan repeats.

Izuku can feel something bad is about to happen, "Um…Kacchan, maybe you shouldn-"

"Do you want to be out of this situation or not?" he snaps back at Izuku before squaring his shoulders and looking Aizawa in the eyes.

"Go on," he challenges, a knowing look in his eyes as he shakes his head in disappointment as if to say 'I tried to warn you'.

Kacchan smiles wickedly and starts, "I'm not Deku, I'm-"

Izuku watched as Kacchan's whole body froze, face went slack, eyes rolled to the back of his head, and dropped to the floor in a heap. There was no grace in way in which he had fallen, hitting the ground _hard_, limbs sprawled out any which way.

Aizawa only gave his head another disappointed shake in response.

"Is he dead?!" Izuku panics, quickly moving to the fallen boy's side to check for signs of life.

"He's fine," Aizawa says blandly, kicking at his limp foot, "Gonna wake up with one hell of a migraine though. Last 'im for days," he chuckles, and Izuku could only stare up at his instructor somewhat horrified.

"You let him do that? Why?! How long is he going to be out?" Izuku begins to ramble, his nerves getting the best of him.

"Relax kid, I'm his teacher, this is how it goes with Bakugo, he doesn't listen so I always have to make sure he learns the hard way," he states with a shrug, "and he'll come to soon, don't worry. Pick him up, we're going for a walk."

Aizwas swings the office door open and walks out leaving Izuku to scramble to scoop Kacchan up and race to bridge the increasing gap between himself and the Erasure hero.

Finally reaching Aizawa again, in the courtyard in front of the school, he slows to catch his breath.

"Where are we going?" Izuku asks.

"I'm just making sure you two actually make it back to the dorms, the last time I saw you two together after dark you'd destroyed half of Ground Beta," he said while side eyeing him.

Izuku's cheeks flushed, "Oh, r-right, sorry about that," he apologized.

Aizawas sighed heavily, "You two…have a lot going on. And I'm not going to sit here and try to pretend like I understand the half of it, but something like last night was bound to happen sooner or later. I'm just glad neither of you got seriously injured. We all have high hopes for the both of you two, it would've been a waste to see your careers cut short by some petty brawl."

Izuku blinked at him, stunned, "I-," He took a calming breath, "you're right. Our past is…messy," he said, looking down at the sleeping boy in his arms, "we're just never on the same page," he says quietly.

Aizawa nods, "And that brings us to what all this is about," he faces Izuku then, the last bit of daylight hitting his face, "this whole 'being each other' thing, it's meant to be a lesson."

"I don't understand," Izuku finally answers after mulling over his words for a moment.

"I figured you wouldn't, though I guess Nezu did too. I suppose that's why he enlisted us in helping you," he laughs humorlessly, shaking his head.

"Wait, Nezu knows too?"

"He's the one who contacted the man with the Quirk responsible for all this," he says gesturing to Izuku and Kacchan, mouth dropping in a pinched frown.

"Now I'm really confused," Izuku says, "you know who he is?"

"No," Aizawa growled, "but that's probably for the best. It's been decades and I still want to thrott-" he cuts the threat short and waves his hand to end this line of thinking, "That's not important, the point is, this is supposed to be a learning experience. A 'walk-a-mile-in-their-shoes' type deal. He hopes that having you two see the world through one another's eyes will allow you to work through this continuous head butting phase you're going through. I told him it was a terrible idea, that it was dangerous and reckless and-"

"Oh, right, because you've gone through this! Why, though? Ooh, with _who_?! For how long?"

"Breath," Aizawa says before sighing again, "I guess you'll know soon enough, he will be the one you're paired up with…I went through this mess with Yamada forever ago, God we were such idiots back then," he smiles almost fondly? at the memory but it's short lived before he turns serious again, "you'll be meeting with him later this week."

"Present Mic! And you?! But you're such good friends, why would they make you do something like this?  
Aizawa snorted, "We hated each other our first year here, it was almost as bad as you and Bakugo, if you can believe it."

"No way."

"Yup," he said, not elaborating further, much to Izuku's displeasure.

They arrived at the dorms then and Aizawa left him with a few parting words, "I'll tell you something I needed to hear when I went through this: embracing it is the easiest way to end it. The whole Quirk seems to work around the idea that once the two affected understand the other's point of view they're worthy of going back to their own body. It took me and Yamada way too long to figure that out, but like I said, you two are moving at a much faster pace, which is good."

Izuku nodded, committing the words to memory to relay to Kacchan later.

_He's going to hate this._

"Be sure to keep him away from people when he comes to. That migraine is going to put him in a worse mood than usual. No one needs to be present for that," he states solemnly, "also you two will still be expected to finish out your punishment, but after that you'll meet up with us. Like I said, you'll be with Mic and this idiot will be with me," he said nodding a Kacchan.

He's about to walk off when he stops and looks over his shoulder, concerned, "Oh, and good luck with the dreams, I have nothing to help prepare you for those," he shudders and disappears in the shadows before Izuku can ask what that even means.

_Fantastic._

He frowned down at the boy in his arms. It was unsettling looking down at himself like this. His freckles spreading across his closed eyelids, soft mouth parted with tiny puffs coming out, hair a mess on his head, begging to be swept out of his eyes.

Without any say of his own his hand raised to move the curly bangs from their place just below his eyebrows and that sensation from earlier ran through him again. The eagerness. His fingers twitched to run all the way through his incredibly soft hair, down his neck, across his shoulders-

Izuku snatched the hand away. This was all way too unnatural for him, not only was he feeling this way while touching _himself,_ he also couldn't help but notice Kacchan's body reacting to the simple contact.

His heart rate had risen considerably, mouth had gone dry, breathing shallow. Izuku only felt that way in his own body when he was either nervous before a battle or nervous around a crush…

Izuku laughed at himself.

_What do you think this is? Why would Katsuki Bakugo, your childhood frienemie turned rival, of all people be interested in you? Get a grip._

That would be insane. But Izuku still couldn't shake the signals Kacchan's body was giving him as he walked with the smaller boy in his arms, forearms tucked under his knees and shoulders, his head lolling on his chest.

Maybe he was just reading too much in to them. He decided that was most likely the case as he reached Kacchan's room. He turned the handle and walked in before he realized Kacchan was now supposed to be in Izuku's room instead due to the predicament they were in, thanks to some nameless, on call, Freaky Friday man.

He huffed out a frustrated breath as he hefted Kacchan up again and made his way back out into the hall, where he promptly ran into Kirishima.

"Oh, hey bro! I was just coming to see—," he looked down and saw the limp body in Izuku's arms, the quick readjustment had caused Kacchan's head to dangle in a concerning way. Kirishima's eyes bulged, "Holy shit, did you kill him?!" He rushed over to tap Kacchan's cheeks, but there was no response, he was out cold. "Fuck! I know you two hate each other but what the hell dude?! Stay here, we can fix this!"

"What?! NO! Kirishima wait-" Izuku frantically tried to explain the situation but Kirishima was already down the hall screaming for help and as he exited through the stair well door, it closed with a heavy _slam_.

"Oh God," Izuku fretted, moving quickly to drop Kacchan off before he was woken up by half the class, remembering Aizawa's last few words about how no one needed to see an even angrier Kacchan, especially in the form of one Izuku Midoriya.

But between the jostling from Izuku's quickening pace, the loud door slam, and Kirishima's hits to the face Kacchan seemed to finally be coming around.

"What the fuck," he murmured, then groaned loudly. He moved to sit up and unknowingly brushed up against Izuku's groin.

At the same time Izuku let out a whimper at the overstimulating feeling of having Kacchan pressed against him and moving against his crotch, the boy's eyes shot open.

He took stock of the situation quickly, assessing that he was in a compromising position and how he was squirming against parts he shouldn't be, his eyes jumped to Izuku's wide alarmed ones.

Kacchan snarled and shoved out of his hold, stumbling to balance himself, before he fixed his fiery gaze back on Izuku. His eyes moved so quickly Izuku had almost missed it, but for a brief second they had landed on Izuku's shorts and then a truly horrified look had played across Kacchan's features, eyes going wide and cheeks tinging red.

_Why does he look embarrassed?_

Without thinking Izuku moved to follow his gaze but before he could see what the big shock was Kacchan lunged and hit Izuku in the testicles so hard he had immediately crumpled to the floor, the wind being knocked out of him instantaneously.

He was vaguely aware of Kacchan saying something to him afterwards, and of the many bodies joining them in the hallway, but it wasn't until Kacchan had slammed his room door that Izuku had fully come back around from the brutal attack, catching the attention of his classmates.

And that's how he had found himself in the situation he was in currently. Sitting in the middle of the hall, crying, balls on fire, and the thunderous noise of his peers spiraling engulfing him.

Before things could get any worse, if that were even possible, Izuku shot to his feet and rushed back to Kacchan's room, ignoring the calls of his classmates, to close and lock the door before he slid down on it, breath shaky, hands trembling from the roller coaster of emotions he had just hopped off of.

Denki's words from earlier kept looping in his head: _What the hell _was_ happening._


	9. Katsuki's Discovery

The door slammed behind him and he stood in the cluttered room breathing ragged, hands shaking.

_A boner._

_A fucking BONER?!_

"Shit!" Katsuki paced the small space running his hands through the unruly green curls now atop his head.

He sat on the edge of the bed and flopped back exasperated, head screaming at him, pounding from who the fuck knew what.

_What the _fuck_ just happened?_

All he could remember was standing toe to toe with Aizawa and the next thing he knew he was wrapped up in Deku's arms. Which is the complete opposite route of his "avoid Deku like the plague", foolproof plan he'd decided on. Because not only had physical contact been made, oh no, _groin_contact had been made for fuck's sake.

Katsuki rubbed his eyes harshly and groaned, toeing off his shoes before he brought his feet up on the bed to properly curl in on himself.

The only saving grace had been that he was able to neutralize the growing interest in the other boy's pants before he had noticed, but shit, even that had been a close call.

Deku was less than a second away from seeing just exactly how Katsuki felt about him, so naturally he had punched himself in the nuts. What else is a guy expected to do? Desperate times call for desperate measures.

But hell, it was probably all for nothing anyway, surely Deku had felt something already when he'd grabbed Katsuki's face earlier, which had also effectively gone against his plan to distance himself, the bastard. Because Katsuki knows he sure as hell felt something shoot up his spine at the feel of that large, calloused hand gripping his cheeks, but he literally could not focus on the sudden spark as he was utterly freaking out thinking about what _Deku_ was experiencing. Thank God Aizawa had cut in.

Fuck, the entire day, from stumbling out of someone else's bed in someone else's body to punching himself in the balls, had been exhausting.

Katsuki sighed, knowing this situation was going to get so much worse before it got any better, and decided to just let sleep take him away from the hell that was living through Deku.

The next two days passed without incident, save for the never ending texts and drop ins by Deku's annoying ass friends.

"Are you sure you're alright Midoriya?"

"Is Bakugou still bothering you?"

"When do you get to come back to class?"

"We miss seeing you around!"

_Blah blah blah, ugh!_

It took everything in Katsuki not to break character. Never in his life has he had to sit back and endure so much rambling without being able to shut it down as soon as whatever extra it was coming from grated his nerves. It was hell, to say the very least.

But yeah, other than that things had been normal…or as normal as things could get, he supposed.

He still avoided Deku at all costs, continued to clean the surprisingly disgusting dorms-_like seriously, were these kids raised in a barn?—_made a list of acceptable meals for Deku and slid it under his door – he wasn't falling behind in his regime due to whatever dumbass punishment this was—and kept to himself.

Anything in the bathroom was awkward as fuck. The first shower he had taken left him flushed all the way down to his toes. The fully naked body of his current love interest paired with him running his hands all over it, watching soap and water drip off of himself brought forth…rather conflicting emotions. He tried not to think about it too hard, so as not to make his head hurt any more than it already did. As it was still ringing from the night with Aizawa.

But even the cringey bathroom bits Katsuki would consider normal under the current circumstances. The only abnormal thing that continued nagging at him were the _dreams_.

Now, Katsuki had experienced some fucking weird dreams in his time, but blurring through different dream-scapes while seeing the dozens of warped sleep worlds through Izuku Midoriya's eyes was something altogether uncanny.

Every night had been one memory of Deku's after another, all set in different times and places. The only recurring factor being that Katuski was present in all of them.

The first night it had started out with the duo being young, four or five maybe?

He watched his younger self, wet and dripping, blond eyebrows scrunched together and lip curled in disgust as he sat in the river looking up at Deku's outstretched hand. And this time instead of feeling the anger rise in him he felt the pang of hurt that shot through his chest when he watched himself smack the hand away, Deku's feeling crushed.

That night he had also seen the back of his young self as Deku scrambled to keep up, he felt tears run down his face as he called out the childhood name Deku had given him, pleading with him to wait. It was…unnerving being on the other end. Instead of feeling like the leader he was, always had been, forever ahead of Deku, he felt what the other boy had, like he was losing ground between his childhood friend, failing to keep his stride, unimportant and alone.

Then it had switched to the middle school years where there was a painful montage of Katsuki making Deku's life a living hell. He saw what Deku saw: Katsuki smug and distant, allowing his stupid posse to do with Deku as they pleased and he felt the disappointment Deku had felt, defeated and out of ideas on how to fix things between them, confused as to where things went wrong.

Finally, this past night it had focused solely on their time here at UA, more recent memories. And each one during this time period just showed Katsuki with an anger that was more explosive than all the other memories combined. Each one during their short time in high school together showed him pissed and snarling, declaring Deku as useless or demanding to know who the hell Deku thought he was for hiding his Quirk for so long. He felt all the anxiety that drowned Deku every time Katsuki came into the room, looked his way, picked a fight, growled his name, put him down.

The whole ordeal was surreal, seeing all these moments through Deku's eyes rather than his own, experiencing all the emotions the other boy had gone through instead of his own was…something Katsuki had not been prepared for.

Katsuki thought about the past few night's memories and couldn't help the guilt that seemed to wash over him, but he tried not to focus on it too much as he got ready for class.

Technically he was still on house arrest but now being in Deku's body he was free a day early, thank fuck. He wasn't sure how much longer he could be cooped up in the place trying to avoid the only other person occupying it all day.

He sat through class, barely hearing what Aizawa was lecturing about as his mind kept finding its way back to the dreams he'd been having.

He knew they were a part of the past and that he and Deku had switched over to rivals now but he still couldn't help thinking about all the shit he'd put the other through. Each dream he was a part of was a memory of Deku's that held a lot of pain, panic, and fear.

_Are those the only emotions he associates with me now?_ Katsuki ponders as he watches his pen scribble doodles on his notebook.

_He_ understood his frequent outbursts and flare ups of his past self, but Deku didn't.

He didn't know Katsuki had been suppressing feelings for him since grade school. Of course he hadn't know what they had meant that early on, only that they made him nervous, and nervous was not a weak ass feeling Katsuki put up with, so naturally he did everything in his power to make sure that feeling never showed itself again.

The fact that effectively shoving that emotion aside had involved him pushing Deku away and treating him the way he had isn't something Katsuki is even sure _he_ recognized consciously…until now.

Katsuki couldn't help feeling like an asshole for putting Deku through what he had over the years, but at the same time he was kind of in awe at just how strong willed the smaller boy had been through it all.

Katsuki had shot him down in every way imaginable and at every chance he could over the past decade and Deku was still excelling and busting his ass to prove himself.

He had to give the nerd props.

Katsuki hadn't even noticed the class had cleared out until Aizawa dropped down in the desk in front of him with a sigh, rolling his head over towards him, looking about as exhausted as Katsuki felt.

"Ok kid, you're with me today. I know you—Midoriya—shit you know what I'm trying to say, is still on house arrest, but we need to get both of you back into your training cycle, he'll be with Yamada. We'll come together later so you two can spar. You both need to continue progressing, but I don't think it's safe to let you in with the rest of the class without understanding each other's Quirks first."

"Will we really be progressing sparring with Quirks we've never used before? It'll be like starting from square fucking one all over again," Katsuki replies with a huff and an eye roll.

Aizawa snorts and stands, "I already knew Yamada had the easier student, but after that comment I'm positive we have our work cut out for us," he shakes his head moving towards the door.

"What the fuck is that supposed to even _mean_?"

"I know you usually have your head up your ass, but I didn't think it was that far up there. Do you seriously think Midoriya will be starting from square one with your Quirk? Have you seen the way he analyzes the rest of his classmates? He has literal _books_ on everyone's Quirks and he's known them less than a year. I can only imagine how much he's got on the kid he's known since diapers."

"So just because the nerds' a fanboy he's going to know how to handle my Quirk out the gate?" Katsuki barks out a laugh.

"I'd bet my _sleeping bag_ that you have no idea how Midoriya's Quirk works, and while he's continuing your training for you, _you'll_ be the one starting him off from the very beginning again," he raises a brow in challenge, "Honestly, how do you think you're going to do this afternoon?" he asks.

Katsuki stands and splays his hands across the desk, glaring daggers at the sleep deprived mess in front of him, "You must seriously be hopped up on some insane amount of caffeine or completely delirious from no sleep if you think this afternoon isn't going to be anything other than a fucking cake walk, old man."

"Pftt, and you passing out the other day must have messed you up more than I thought if _you_ think you won't be in Recovery Girl's office after round one. _Midoriya_ couldn't even use his Quirk without breaking something until a few weeks ago," he laughs, "But I'll humor you. You really think you can prove me wrong, huh?"

"Damn straight," Katsuki spits back.

"You're a cocky little shit. A cocky little shit that's wrong, sure, but I can appreciate the enthusiasm," he smiles evilly, "See you at Ground Beta in an hour, Deku's uniform will be in the locker room waiting for you, try not to hurt yourself too badly, yeah?" he smirks.

With that he makes his exit, leaving a fuming Katsuki in his wake.

Katsuki looked in the mirror in disgust.

_Who the fuck has bunny ears on their costume? Is he serious with this shit?_

He also wasn't a fan of how modest the suit was either. Once the entire outfit was on the only sliver of skin showing was the bit around his ridiculously emerald eyes. Not only did it leave a ton to the imagination but it was also restricting as hell. Katsuki's own costume at the very least allowed him full range of motion for his arms.

Irritated, he pushed through the locker room doors to go meet Aizawa.

The Erasure hero was standing in an intersection of the fake city that was Ground Beta, waiting.

"Alright, we doing this or what?" Katsuki asks, beginning his stretching routine.

"Ready when you are," is the only response he gets.

He nodded curtly and continued to warm himself up. Couldn't help but notice how much stiffer Deku was than himself, it being obvious that he hadn't gone through proper training techniques since age four.

_No wonder the loser couldn't control his bones from breaking, he can barely control a muscle from tearing at this point. I guess I'll have to add stretching exercises to his list for me since he obviously doesn't do it on his own._

He rolled his eyes and pushed through the burn of some of the harder body extensions, taking his time before finally facing Aizawa and quirking a brow.

"Alright, come at me," Aizawa states blandly.

"What?"

"You heard me. Midoriya doesn't have a Quirk that can just be shown off like you do, the applications of it can only be seen when he's in action, so. Come at me," he states again.

Katsuki grimaces as he concentrates on activating the Quirk. How did he do it? When using his own it just _came_, automatically, but Deku's almost felt like it didn't exist. He couldn't feel it ready to rush out of him like he did with his own, so where did the nerd start?

He thought back to all the times he'd seen Deku in battle, straining his memory to come up with something useful. Maybe—

"What's the matter princess? Thought you had this in the bag," Aizawa calls from across the way.

"Shut _up_!" Katsuki snarls.

_Fuck, how does he do this?!_

He closed his eyes and focused on the green lightning he always saw flying around Deku once he had finally managed to find full body control of his Quirk. He imagined it coming from the sky, striking him where he stood and spreading through his limbs, coursing through his veins and that's when he finally felt it.

One for All.

He imagined it would be powerful, it was All Might's power after all, but shit the sheer force of it was instantly overwhelming.

It literally felt like his blood was searing through his skin, like his body was ready to explode with the effort of keeping the Quirk contained, like it would take no effort at all for this power to completely consume him, bring him to his knees, rip him apart from the inside out.

_Is this what it felt like every time he used it? Fuck._

He snapped his eyes open and his breathing was strained, whole body shaking, sweat rolling down his back as he locked eyes with Aizawa.

The pro was staring at him, slightly impressed, and crouched to a defensive stance, ready.

Katsuki knew he needed to start the match but at this point he wasn't even sure if he could _move_, much less _fight_. It was taking everything in him to just to stay upright.

He knew the only reason he hadn't combusted on the spot was because Deku had already trained his body to expect this intense backlash of the Quirk, it was used to this great deal of stress, but Katsuki certainly wasn't and as much as this pissed him off he had no choice, he deactivated the Quirk.

Dropping to all fours he gasped for breath, vision blurring as he tried to find Aizawa again.

"Interesting, I didn't realize this is what a 'cake walk' looked like," Aizawa drawled coming to stoop down next to him.

"Fuck…you…," he rasped out.

"Go again," he commanded, "Midoriya does this dozens of times a day, his body can handle it. It's just a matter of if _you_ can," he challenges.

"That shit was insane…I don't know how he's not dead yet," Katsuki croaked out as he stood.

"Believe me, he's had some close calls," Aizawa replied, exasperated, "but I didn't take you for a quitter Bakugou, you givin' up already?"

Katsuki snarled at the insult.

_If that shitty nerd can do, I sure as _hell_ can!_

So he went again, and again…and again.

Each time concentrating on reigning One for All in just a little bit more. Not once in the whole hour they'd been at it had he been able to attack. Eventually he'd been able to move, but not with any speed or urgency worth mentioning.

"Well you've successfully wasted an hour of my life," Aizawa sighed, handing him a water bottle, "and didn't prepare yourself in any way to spar with Midoriya in," he checked his watch, "ah, five minutes. Congratulations."

Katuski wasn't even fully coherent as he laid starfished out on the ground, drenched in sweat, chest heaving.

He'd never utterly failed at something so miserably in his life, didn't quite know how to process it.

_Is this what being a loser feels like? No wonder all the extras in his class were so caught up on being best fucking friends, feeling this low calls for reassurance and coddling. I think I finally understand why this nerd cries so much…huh._

"WE HAVE ARRIVED!" Present Mic's obnoxious voice cut through Katsuki's thoughts, forcing his eyes open, not realizing he had drifted off.

Aizawa hefted him up and allowed him to lean against him with all his body weight.

"We may need a minute, he wasn't prepared for the intensity of your Quirk," Aizawa shakes his head, looking down at the half dead boy leaning into him.

Katsuki could hear Deku chuckle, "Not as easy as it looks, huh, Kacchan?"

"Shut up you damn…nerd…" Katsuki's mouth stops working as he sees his body come into view. He feels Deku's body go into a momentary state of shock, forcing him to only look at the dark army boots the other boy was currently sporting.

_What the fuck?_

It took all of the strength still left in Katsuki to force his gaze to travel up, but when he finally managed it his shitty fucking day just did a complete one-eighty.

As soon as he locked on to the blood red eyes, stark against the dark mask framing them, still trained on him, a flood gate opened. Something in Deku that had been knocking ever since Katsuki had made his way into this scrawny ass body and had finally bust loose after seeing himself in his hero costume.

Where just a few moments ago he couldn't bring his gaze past Deku's shoes, now having forced past that, he found his eyes roaming. _Everywhere_.

Deku's gaze fleeted around Katsuki's features on their own, following a bead of sweat from his brow, over his defined jawline, down past the long expanse of his neck, dropping to the exposed skin of his clavicle; watching the roll of his biceps pulling his tan skin taut as he crossed his toned arms; the sharp, cocky smile that brought a dangerous glint to his already hazardous stare.

None of this was a shock to Katsuki, he knew people stared, how could they not, I mean look at him, right?

What brought him out of the exhausted daze he had been in was the languid pooling in his gut, the hitched breathing, the hairs on his arms standing on end…a feeling he understood all too well.

_Me in a costume does things to Deku…arousing things._

Katsuki pushed off of Aizawa with a newfound strength.

Sure these past few days had been the worst, honestly he felt like he was losing at every turn, but now? Oh ho ho, _now_? Things were looking up.

Apparently the nerd seemed to have a better handle of himself when Katsuki was just existing within his everyday life, but once he switched over to Ground Zero, Deku's guard on his feelings fell to the wayside, hormones raging on sight of him in his skin tight top and baggy pants that still managed to do all the right things for his legs.

Katsuki feels like hitting himself, the signs had been there the whole time. How Deku's body reacted the same way it did around his body as it did around round face's, the spark that went through him when Deku had gripped his face, his eyes falling to Deku's mouth constantly, Deku calling him pretty for fuck's sake, it was clear as fucking day!

_Deku thinks about me too._

He made his way to come toe to toe with Deku, the height difference no longer bothering him, nothing bothering him anymore really, because _nothing_ could bring him down from the high he had just found himself experiencing.

He watched as Deku's confident smirk faltered, his eyes tinging with the smallest hint of worry at Katsuki's abrupt change in demeanor.

Katsuki's smirk only grew.

_Oh yeah, you should be worried nerd, 'cause shit just got interesting._


	10. Izuku Plays with Fire

Hell.

He was living in his own personal hell.

Izuku watched as the obscenely red blush colored the top of his chest through the locker room mirror. Never in his life has he gotten to stare at Kacchan in his hero gear for this long without the threat of being blown into next week looming.

_God why is the shirt so tight?! You can see everything! And the arms completely exposed?!_

Izuku flexed subtly in the mirror and just about fell over seeing his muscle shift deliciously under perfectly tanned skin. Everything about Kacchan in his hero get up was just so…

_Sexy. Hgnnn._

It was then that Izuku finally decided that if Kacchan hadn't realized his feelings by now then today was definitely going to make everything abundantly clear. He knew how his body reacted to Kacchan in this damn suit, and there was no way of escaping their spar later today, so he'd definitely notice Izuku's body basically going in to heat.

_Well, this is it. He's gonna find out today that I'm a pervert that drools over him in his hero costume like some insane fanboy stalker. _

Honestly, Izuku should probably be more ashamed that his long held secret was about to be unveiled, but some new developments had come to light recently that were keeping his nerves relatively reigned in.

Aizawa had told him to brace himself for the dreams, but Izuku didn't think _anything_ could have prepared him for the onslaught of Kacchan's inner most thoughts once sleep washed over him.

To be fair, they had started off innocent enough.

The first few nights had been mostly them throughout the years. Past instances Izuku remembered vividly from childhood, and some even as recent as last week. Except now these memories were colored with Kacchan's commentary, thoughts, his reasoning.

Izuku considered, in his own recollection of them, all the memories that he'd seen in these dreams to be times when Kacchan was angry with him, instances that further fueled Kacchan's hatred toward him: pissed when Izuku reached for his hand in the creek, enraged when Izuku had beaten him in their first training session at UA, absolute ire driving him when he'd summoned Izuku to Ground Beta.

And in these dreams, sure, those feelings were the frontrunners. But it became obvious after multiple scenes that other emotions were present in the background of these memories. Underneath the malevolent red tinging the edges of them there were not so subtle undertones of confusion, embarrassment, admiration, jealousy, and to Izuku's great surprise, attraction?

So, yeah, things had started off innocent enough.

And then…not so much.

This past night had been similar memories of the two of them—but now with alternate uncut, uncensored, unrated endings that would make even _Midnight_ blush.

Every encounter they'd experienced together over the past few months, no matter how mundane, was now suddenly morphed into some of the most erotic scenes Izuku's virgin eyes had ever witnessed.

Kacchan eyeing Izuku in the locker room as they both undressed after a grueling training session, watching as he unzipped his jumpsuit slowly, peering over his shoulder to give Kacchan a lust filled gaze, daring him to make a move…

That one had ended with Izuku pinned to the lockers as Kacchan thrust up into him mercilessly, growling obscenities, breathing shallow against Izuku's sweat pricked neck as his toes curled with the effort of making it last as long as possible.

Jump scenes to right after they'd rescued Kacchan from the league of villains. He'd pushed his way into Izuku's room and locked the door behind him before shoving him down on the bed, working his way down to his knees between Izuku's legs, purring that he had to "properly thank" him for saving his life, before he worked Izuku's cock like it was his only mission in life to see the greenete reduced to a babbling mess.

The Ground Beta memory had been last, and it existed in Kacchan's subconscious on a whole different level. Most likely because it was the only one where Kacchan was drawing from actual experience of the two of them being in such close proximity. That one was _so_ much more vivid. Izuku could feel the labored breathing of his dream-self fanning over Kacchan's face, felt his chest heaving underneath him, solid hips pressed firmly against his own, wet parted lips smashed against Kacchan's hand on his face.

This scene had started where the fight had ended, with their bodies flush with one another, personal space all but obliterated, Kacchan's intense murderous gaze searing into Izuku's dazed one.

Though, now, instead of pushing off of him, Kacchan would absolutely _ravage_ him.

Hot tongue laving up the side of Izuku's neck, reveling in the saltiness of the effort he'd just exuded in battle, imprinting marks on all available skin with bared teeth, all the while letting his hands run up and down the length of Izuku's body, tightening in his lush hair, shuddering at the moans the smaller boy would make in response to his ministrations.

When Kacchan's fantasy had shifted to Izuku flipping their positions to now straddle the blonde, biting at his ear before whispering "Katsuki" in a way that dripped from his lips like sin and diving his hand past the waistband of his briefs, Izuku had shot up in bed.

Sheets sticky with sweat, chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath, eyes blearily attempting to adjust to the soft stream of morning light making its way into his room and chocking back a cough as he noticed the very prominent morning wood that had appeared.

Izuku had never ran faster to take a cold shower in his life, all the while his inner monologue chanting: _I'm not getting off to myself, not getting off to myself, not getting off to myself, _as he shivered through the worst of his arousal.

But every time he closed his eyes all he could see were those all too familiar verdant orbs drowning him with the amount of lust pooling within them.

Izuku was sure he was now in a constant shade of pink. How could he ever look at his body again without envisioning the lewd images Kacchan's mind had branded into his mind's eye. Izuku had never really thought of himself in that light before, and on the rare occasion that he did it was _never_ been anywhere near the same intensity that Kacchan had. This whole discovery of Kacchan's feelings for him was…

Nerve racking.

Anxiety inducing.

Terrifying.

One more tick off the growing list of things to deepen the Adolescent Gay Panic Spiral ™ he'd found himself in for the past few days.

Although if he were being completely honest with himself…

_It's hot as hell. Kacchan dreams about me! And they aren't dreams where he's getting away with my murder! Although, how do I bring this up without him murdering me currently? Maybe—_

The sudden ear splitting screech that overtakes Izuku's senses causes him to snap out of his thoughts, hands automatically coming up to cover his ears, which hardly muffles the offending noise.

He rushes out of the locker room and into the large space that is Gym Gamma to find Present Mic belting out a scream in the direction of the locker rooms, the force of his Quirk only intensifying without the added wall standing between them any longer.

Izuku moves out of the direct current and off to the side of the room, rounding the space to get up behind Yamada, who must have not noticed him come in, considering his eyes were scrunched shut and his head thrown back to maximize his attack.

_How could he fight someone with his eyes closed? That can't be the most effective way to use his Quirk can it? What if someone makes it through his attack? He'll never see them coming._

Izuku rolls his eyes as he takes advantage of the pros lack of judgement and comes up to smack a hand over Yamada's mouth, who, in turn, then snaps his eyes open and yelps while jumping away.

Izuku raises his eyebrows in surprise to the reaction, "What was that?"

"You were just taking forever," Yamada groaned, attempting to plaster his ever present smile back to his face, "thought I'd hurry you up," he says while taking another step back.

"No," Izuku says stepping towards him, just to have him back up again, "I mean the wimpy yelp you just let out."

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean," he chuckles nervously, smile cracking. Another step back.

"Why are you running away from me?" Step up.

"Hmm?" Sidestep.

Izuku narrows his eyes, "Are you avoiding eye contact?"

"Absolutely not!" Mic sputters, while forcing his gaze to finally meet Izuku's, though the tremble of his bottom lip gives away what a feat that was.

"Does…Kacchan make you nervous?" Izuku asks tilting his head, a bewildered smile spreading across his face.

"Gah! Don't look at me like that!" Mic pleads.

Izukus laughs, "He does, doesn't he!"

"It's the _eyes, _ok?! Hell spawn red, and then a personality to match. Don't tell Shouta!" he wails.

Izuku blinks before throwing his head back to let out his first real laugh in days, "He's like half your age!"

"Don't judge me! You know him, you know what I'm talking about!"

Oh, Izuku knew, all too well, "Yeah but…don't Aizawa's eyes go red too when he activates his Quirk?...and he's no charmer either," Izuku chuckles.

Yamada rolls his eyes and huffs, stuffing his hands into his leather jacket, "Yeah but that's only when it's activated. And he never uses it on me anymore unless he wants to sleep on the couc-," he cuts himself off, cheeks tinging pink.

Izuku gives him a quizzical look.

"Erm. Anywho, why don't we get this party started?!" he exclaims, smiling brightly once again, clapping his hands and ushering Izuku to the center of the room.

"Sure you can still teach with the 'hell spawn red' eyes watching you," Izuku teases as he turns to face his mentor.

Looking down at him over his glasses, Yamada shoots him an unamused look, "I'll be fine you just surprised me earlier. Just don't do that evil snarl thing he does and we'll get through this, alright?" he says pointedly.

"Fair enough," Izuku nods, "What are we starting with?"

"Why don't you tell me what you understand about Bakugou's Quirk," Yamada prompts.

_Easy._

"He sweats Nitroglycerin which he then ignites to set off explosions. The more he sweats the more intense the explosion. It is best used for offense, but could easily be switched to defense if need be. Super versatile. Small explosions, large, stun grenades, propelling through the air. I think he has a new AP shot or something he can do now. He—"

"We've got a fanboy over here don't we!" Yamada claps him on the back to cut him off, laughing good humuredly, "Great! We don't have to go over the basics. Fantastic. So, we're gonna start small. Why don't you show me the simplest thing you've ever seen Bakugou do with his Quirk?"

Izuku ponders this for a moment. Kacchan hasn't calmly used his Quirk since they were kids…but he can still vividly remember the small sparks Kacchan would let flicker to life in his palms when he would show off in the school yard during primary.

Izuku uses the memory as a reference point, before closing his eyes and focusing on the task at hand. He thought of holiday sparklers and their little pin pricks of explosions, small, subdued, mesmerizing to watch, and in no way threatening.

He opened his eyes to find his palms alight with small bursts of energy. The flickering lights popped and sizzled against his skin, making his hands tingle. Izuku had no idea how Kacchan's gloves worked with his Quirk but they somehow allowed the embers to dance across his clothed fingers.

"Wow that was fast!" Yamada draws Izuku's attention away from his hands, "For sure thought you'd need some time to adjust to things, but good on you kid! Think you can pick up the intensity a little bit?"

Izuku nods and focuses on ramping up the degree of the explosions still flickering in his hands. It isn't hard, it was already incredibly hot in the gym, and even with his first attempt at Kacchan's Quirk being something a child could do, the heat from it was just one more factor adding to the layer of sweat quickly coating his skin.

With a final push, he brought the contained bursts to thundering detonations.

_This…actually kind of…hurts._

The more power he put behind the explosions the more his arms ached with the force of the back lash. His hands and forearms were beginning to get uncomfortably hot from the white hot heat erupting from the center of his palms, and Izuku couldn't even hear himself think with how the blasts were going off right next to his ears—they were _LOUD._

"Yes!" Yamada yells over the explosions, "You're rocking this! Forget the first grade stuff, who needs that?! Let's see you in the air!"

Izuku deactivates the Quirk, "The a-air?" Izuku gulps, "But Kacchan didn't even start moving through the air until, like, last year…" he looks down at his hands worriedly.

"I believe in you, little hero," Yamada smiles, "His body can already do it, so you're already half way there, you just have to get the hang of it. And you're a fast learner! You've got this!" he exclaims.

Izuku slowly starts nodding his head in determination, "Yeah. Yeah ok, yeah. I can do this," he says in an attempt to hype himself up.

_How hard can it be, right? He just faces his palms towards the floor and uses his Quirk to get him off the ground…_

Izuku puts his hands at his sides, bending them at the wrist so they were parallel with the ground.

_Yamada's faith is touching and all, but it took Kacchan forever to get battle in the air down. I wish I had paid more attention…how does he find the balance between full force explosions and the contained ones he uses to keep himself up?_

Izuku tests out a few small explosions first, slowly upping the intensity until he found his feet slowly coming off the ground.

As soon as his feet left the ground though a whole other issue arose.

_How does he stay balanced up here?!_

Izuku yelped as he wobbled in the air, hands flailing out while small explosions were still irrupting from his hands.

"Whoa—hey! _Watch the hair_!" Yamanda yells while ducking out of the way.

Izuku put more force behind his explosions to keep himself from falling to the floor, but put a little too much power into it, as it sent him flipping through the air screaming as he lost control of everything.

The floor came up and hit him before he even realized he was falling, and he face planted—hard.

Groaning he rolls over to his back, vision blurry, vaguely aware of a cackling Yamada near him.

"You ok little hero?" he chuckles while stooping to meet Izuku's dazed gaze, and Izuku's only response is a weak nod.

"Up you go then!" he says as he drags Izuku up by both arms.

Izuku stumbles a bit, "My face hurts," he garbles woozily.

"Yeah next time try to avoid eating the pavement at top speed," Yamada suggests with a shrug, "It was a rocky start but I think you can get it. Wanna go again?"

Izuku looks at him warily.

"Come onnnn, you know you want to show Bakugou up! What are a few scrapes when your pride is on the line?" he says nudging Izuku's shoulder repeatedly with his own, "Huh? Huh? Huh?"

"Ok!" Izuku relents, "Fine, but if he complains about his body being banged up I'm directing him to you," Izuku glowers at his instructor who throws up his hands in surrender with a smile.

The next fifteen minutes consisted of Izuku getting off the ground to only then fall back to it with zero grace. He'd managed to count six times he'd landed on his face, nine on his ass, four where he'd actually slammed into the wall before sliding to the ground, and once where he landed on an extremely irritated Yamada.

Needless to say things above ground were going quite poorly.

"Alright, give it a break, you look like you're about to pass out. You good?" Yamada asks seriously. A new expression of concern and worry taking over his features that Izuku had never really seen before.

Izuku nods, but sways a little. Yamada steadies him with one strong hand to his shoulder.

"Just relax. We still have a bit before we have to meet up with the others. Here," he hands Izuku a water bottle and tells him to sit.

Izuku takes a deep chug while considering the hero in front of him. Yamada sighs and drops down next to him.

"What?" he asks.

"Wha-"

"You were pouting at me with those demon eyes, it was unnerving. Out with it," he orders.

"I just-," Izuku lets out an exasperated sigh, "How did you make it through all this without going completely insane?"

Yamada raises his eyebrows and smirks, "Um, have you met me?" he chuckles, leaning back on his hands, completely at ease.

This was weird. Seeing Yamada outside of his overzealous, obnoxious front he constantly puts up. Without his unnatural cherry disposition he was almost…normal. Bearable.

"I guess you're right, but—" Izuku doesn't know how to ask about the dreams without bringing about a talk that would surely scar the both of them forever, so he opts for a different line of questioning, "How did you get back to your own body? What am I supposed to be getting out of this? Aizawa said we were supposed to figure some things out on our own, but what does that _mean?_"

Izuku's voice begins to rise, words coming out rushed, panicked.

"Kacchan won't even look at me, let alone _talk_ to me! Am I going to be stuck like this forever? Oh god, do I have to be Mitsuki's son for the rest of my life? I can't. She'll eat me alive. I can't pretend to be him for much longer, I _hate_ spicy food, and he won't let me eat Katsudon or _anything_really," Izuku whimpers, "And the cursing, and the catwalking, and the ball hitting, and, and – the _sexual tens_-," Yamada is the one to smack a hand over Izuku's mouth this time.

"Jesus, and Shouta say's _I_ never stop talking," Yamada mumbles.

_Shouta again_.

"Look, Midoriya. These are all valid concerns, although I'm electing to ignore the last bit, for both of our sake's. Just breathe, ok? One thing at a time, yeah?"

He demonstrates breathing deep through his nose and out through his mouth and Izuku follows along until he's no longer hyperventilating.

"Ok, I'm fine. One thing at a time, you're right," he takes a deep breath, "so how do we get through this?" he tries again.

Yamada thinks awhile before answering, "I think it's a respect thing. Or maybe an understanding one another thing? I'm not really all that sure. Like Shouta mentioned, you'll have to come to those realizations by yourself, but I can tell you that we finally got back to normal life after we stopped coming for each other's throats and learned to appreciate one another's hardships."

_Yeah, Aizawa did hint at needing to recognize what the other goes through in their day to day life. Walk a mile in their shoes and all that…_

Izuku filed away this information for a later time. He definitely needs to sit down with Kacchan soon if they want to be done with this ordeal any time in the near future.

Izuku can't exactly imagine what 'hardships' Kacchan actually has to endure though, so far his life has seemed relatively manageable. Though with Izuku's luck that was sure to change soon.

Not wanting to dwell on that depressing thought any longer than necessary, Izuku decides to veer off topic.

"…you keep calling him Shouta. What's up with that?"

Yamada's clears his throat, "That's his name, isn't it?" he says jokingly, but Izuku notices the tips of his ears ever so slightly turning pink.

Izuku hums in agreement, "But no one else calls him that," he presses.

Yamada chooses to ignore the bait and is now suddenly very focused on picking lint off his shirt.

"You know, Aizawa said you two were almost as bad as Kacchan and I your first year," Izuku drawls.

Yamada snorts a laugh, but doesn't look up, "That's the understatement of the century."

Izuku raises a brow, "Oh? But you two are super close now. Is that what we should expect when we make it out of this?"

Yamada shrugs, "Dunno, everyone's different. Every relationship is different."

"We have similar dynamics though, the pairs of us, right?"

Yamada stands and brushes off his pants, "Sure. You and I are the people pleasers, the emotionally available ones, the optimists. Bakugou and Sho—Aizawa are…," he can't seem to find the word he's looking for, so Izuku supplies one.

"Tyrants?"

The man goes still, mouth forming into a tight line, "I was just going to say 'intense'—"

"Intensely merciless? Yeah I feel that."

A strained smile is now spreading across Yamada's face, "No, they're just passionate about w—"

"Passionate about making life unbearable? Who are you telling. Preaching to the choir man."

Yamada's eye starts to twitch, "Hey, now. Take it easy, kid."

"God, why are they both so relentlessly hostile? Like, we get it, you're alpha males, relax."

Yamada drags Izuku up by the collar and jabs a finger into his chest, "I don't know what you and you're little hellion have going on, but _my_ Shouta is none of those things, you hear me? He's not merciless _or_ hostile! He's the most down to earth person I know and he's here trying to help _you_punks out and this is the thanks he ge—" he stops when he notices Izuku smiling.

Yamada narrows his eyes, "Wha-"

"You two are together," It wasn't a question.

Yamada drops Izuku like he's been burned, "What? N-no! We're," Izuku crosses his arm and gives him and unimpressed look, Yamada groans "—shit! Don't tell him you found out. I promised I wouldn't—," he frets while he begins to pace, he spins to look at Izuku with a half crazed gleam in his eye, "Look. I've been wearing him down for the past decade to let us get a cat and he finally caved, I can't afford to give him a reason to back out of it, I already have a Tabby kitten picked out. So you're going to keep this to yourself, right?"

"Tabb-? D-_decade_?!" Izuku sputters, "Hold on, when—"

"Nope! No, no, no. Enough talking!" Yamada waves a finger at him while a small hysterical laugh forms in the back of his throat, "You're a sneaky one. You've gotten way too much out of me already. We're here to _train_," he emphasizes, though Izuku isn't sure if he's reminding himself or his student.

"But I—"

"Hell of an intermission but we're back to business folks!" He claps his hands, cutting Izuku off, his commentating persona back in full swing "Let's see what else you've got, huh? Let's see some power moves!" He declares while literally pushing Izuku away from him.

Izuku spins on his instructor with pleading eyes, "You can't just say all that and then not answer questions! There's so much to unpack here, come on!"

Yamada folds his arms across his chest and purses his lips, before a small smirk appears, "Fine. We both want things. I need to make sure '_Aizawa'_doesn't find out you know about us and make sure you're ready for this spar so I don't get chewed out about it. And you want answers and for me to not tell Bakugou that you were staring at his body in the locker room for a quarter of our session—"

"_What?!_ No! I—I was just confused about the gauntlets, that's why it took me so long to get out here!"

"Sure kid, and your mask is on upside down because you were focused on his eyes, right? What a gentleman," he scoffs as he makes the 'my eyes are up here' gesture.

Izuku frantically pats his face, and sure enough the mask is sitting awkwardly across his cheekbones. He vaguely remembers throwing it on as an afterthought as he mooned over the deep 'V' of Kacchan's costume.

All he could do was try and keep his expression neutral as he slowly fixed the accessory, but he could already feel his face setting on fire, giving him away.

"So," Yamada continues, "Here's what we're gonna do. You're going to get back to training and if you can land a hit on me from the air I'll keep this information to myself and I'll give you a _few_ answers," he smiles smugly, "Ready?" he asks dropping into a fighting stance.

"Wait! I could barely even stay in the air a few minutes ago! How am I supposed to land a hi-"

"GOOO!" he bellows. His Quirk amplifying through his speakers as he held the word out. Izuku doesn't have much choice but to jump into action.

Izuku limped alongside Yamada as they made their journey over to Ground Beta. His costume was tattered from scrapping the floor so many times as well as having his explosions hit _himself_ more than anything else. Blood dripped from the shallow gash above his eyebrow. Sweat streaked down his face with the ungodly heat from his Quirk mixed with the ridiculous stuffiness of the gym.

To be honest this training session had been a complete wreck from start to finish, but for whatever reason the bubbly blonde beside him was ecstatic that Izuku had just blown his face in.

"Are my eyebrows gone?" Yamada asks excitedly, pointing to them.

Izuku slides his gaze to the side to see that, indeed, half of one of Yamada's eyebrows was singed off. His glasses were also cracked and mangled, and his precarious hairdo was now drooping around his shoulders.

"…kind of," Izuku answers and Yamada just laughs excitedly. Izuku stares at him worriedly.

_How did I end up with the nutcase? Kacchan got the competent teacher and I got his cat enthusiast, blackmailing, surprise attack giving, secret boyfriend?_

Izuku huffs a sigh, "You owe me answers."

"Oh! Would you look at the time!" he yells checking his wrist that held no watch.

"No. Don't you dare. _Hey_. Hey!"

Yamada bounds off towards the direction of Ground Beta and throws a wide smile over his shoulder, "Don't want to keep Caterpillar man and his gremlin waiting!"

Izuku takes off after him, the uncomfortable pain coming from the many different points of his body screaming at him to slow down. He wanted to tackle the screaming hero again but he was just so _fast_!

Finally the man child stopped about a block away from the intersection where Aizawa and Kacchan were located. He bent over and laughed while working to catch his breath.

Izuku manages to finally reach him and hunches over as well to gasp for much needed oxygen, "You know, you move surprisingly quick on those twig legs."

Yamada pushes him off balance, sending him to the ground on his rear, "I'll have you know Shouta would do anything for these legs," he winks.

"Gross," Izuku groans, "This is like hearing about your parents' sex lives, please stop," he pleads, covering his face.

"I thought you wanted to know about our relationship?" Yamada chuckles.

"Not that!" Izuku says throwing his hands up in exasperation. He sighs before continuing, "I just don't understand it. You two are just so … _different_. Is that why you work? Because you balance each other? Or do you have some connection after going through your own switch? Did it happen after the switch or were feelings already there that just intensified after being in each other's bodies? Did this experience force you to see each other in another light? A romantic light?" his voice drops to a whisper, "Are the dreams real? Or are they just the Quirk messing with us? Did you have erm… R rated dreams?" Izuku snaps his fingers at Yamada, who has yet to acknowledge a single question, "Hello? What is it!"

Yamada had turned away from him halfway through his line of questioning to stare thoughtfully at the pair they were there to meet down the road. He watched Aizawa say something as he crouched over a sprawled out Kacchan, a small smile graced his lips before he turned back to Izuku and answered, simply, "Yes."

Izuku stared at him like he'd grown a second head, a distressed noise eeking from the back of his throat, "Yes? Yes _WHAT_?!"

Yamada ignored him as he made his way over to the other pair.

"Hey," Izuku hissed, falling into step with his instructor, "I just asked you like forty questions back there, what kind of answer is _yes_? I—"

"Look. Midoryia. If you want me to reassure you that whatever feelings you're having right now are a byproduct of the Quirk, I can't do that. You're a smart kid. You know those feelings were already there. And yes that goes for you _and_ Bakugou. This situation is just forcing you to actually acknowledge them. And I've been there. I know it sucks to finally have to come face to face with your desires for your fated rival against your will, but," he shrugs, "Life comes at you fast sometimes. And if we're being honest, this whole thing brought about the best thing to ever happen to me. I can't say it'll do the same for you two, but at the very least it will help you to understand how to work with one another without a double homicide ending, you feel me?" He claps Izuku on the shoulder before exclaiming they had arrived, making themselves known.

Izuku doesn't have much time to register what's just been dropped on him before Aizawa is explaining that sparring would have to wait a few minutes since Kacchan wasn't prepared for his Quirk.

Izuku smirks despite the roiling in his stomach at Yamada's speech, "Not as easy as it looks, huh, Kacchan?"

Kacchan growls, "Shut up you damn nerd," before struggling to finally make eye contact with Izuku.

When their eyes finally did meet though, Izuku felt the familiar wave of relief wash over him again, but this time he didn't make an excuse for it. It wasn't Kacchan's body just randomly reacting, it wasn't Izuku just reading too much into things. Kacchan's body destresses when Izuku's body comes into view. It calms him.

But the rush of heat running through his veins also tells him that Kacchan's relief almost instantly turns to desire. And as odd as it was to think of Kacchan feeling this way about him, the whiplash is something Izuku is beginning to become accustomed too.

There was no more denying it. Like Yamada had said the feelings were already there, for him and Bakugou, except now they had no choice but to acknowledge them.

Izuku realized the exact moment Kacchan felt his body's reaction to seeing him in his hero costume. The smaller boy's body had gone completely still, eyes wide as he took in the sculpted form before him, mouth slightly open in awe.

_Here we go._

Kacchan pushes of Aizawa who had been holding him up, removing the space between them quickly as he stood toe to toe with Izuku. From this close up Izuku could see how blown out his pupils were, black pools barely rimmed by a forest green. His smirk faltered seeing the determination in Kacchan's freckled face.

Kacchan is about to no doubt make some snide remark when Aizawa interjects.

"You two look like shit, what they hell happened?"

Yamada slings a long arm around Aizawa's neck, "The kid's Quirk is explosions. It was his first time using it. We got a little banged up, but he did a kick ass job."

Aizawa nods his head, impressed, "You hear that Bakugou? _Midoriya_ actually accomplished something today."

Kacchan finally breaks eye contact to snarl at his teacher, "I swear to God Aizawa—"

"I'm just saying," Aizawa says innocently, "Seems like you're still at _square one_."

"You're about to be missing some teeth old man, keep talki—"

"I'm shaking," Aizawa deadpans, before ignoring Kacchan's colorful cursing and dodging a weak punch.

_Ok, so maybe Yamada and I don't have the worst student/mentor dynamic._

Yamada seems to ignore Kacchan as well and further leans into Aizawa, "This combat training stuff is _easy_. I don't know what you and All Might are always complaining about. I killed it."

"I'm not sure if blackmailing is considered 'killing it', but ok," Izuku mumbles while glaring at Yamada, now actually being able to speak without being pinned in place by Kacchan's gaze.

Aizawa quirks a brow, "Blackmail?"

Yamanda shoots Izuku a venomous warning look, but when Aizawa turns to face the older blonde he just shrugs with a smile and a shake of his head, "Kid's been babbling nonsense all day, don't mind him. So! How about we get this show on the road?"

"We could," Aizawa drawls, "but sparky over here needs help that I couldn't give—"

"Like _hell_ I do," Kacchan states stubbornly.

Aizawa choses to ignore him again in favor of focusing on Izuku, "He needs you to tell him how you activate your Quirk while still being able to move," he finishes.

Izuku eyebrows shoot up, "You can't move while it's activated?"

Kacchan growls, "I can _move_, dipshit."

"I'm sorry, let me rephrase," Aizawa says dryly, "He can't move at any pace faster than Recovery Girl's old lady shuffle. Right, Bakugou?"

"I fucking hate you."

Izuku laughs, "Its fine Kacchan. I can help you," he says while watching Kacchan physically bristle at his choice of words.

"We'll leave you to it then," Aizawa says. Izuku nods and the two pros head off to sit on a nearby bench.

He finally turns to face Kacchan again only to find the other boy already staring.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing," he answers innocently, "Just admiring how good I look all banged up and sweaty. Hard look to pull off but I make it work, don't you think?"

Izuku feels his cheeks heating, but chooses to move past Kacchan's blatant attempt at goading him.

He clears his throat, "Ok, so where to begin…you figured out how to call upon it right?"

Kacchan seems irritated at the change in conversation, and huffs before crossing his arms and answering, "Yeah, it comes when I tell it to, but it's like it's too much. Which I don't understand. How can there be too much of your Quirk?"

Izuku smiles a small smile, "Because I don't have full control over it yet. You're probably calling on one hundred percent of One for All. I can't handle that yet. At least not for extended periods of time."

Kacchan regards him with a narrowed gaze, but gestures at him to go on.

"I can only use about eight percent at any given time, right now. It was five percent up until recently," Izuku says with a shrug.

"…Are you pulling these numbers out of your ass or what? Eight percent? Five percent? How could you possibly know how to break down your power like that?"

Izuku huffs an irritated sigh, "I don't know, you just feel it Kacchan. Here. Call on it but think of eight percent. Lock onto that number and then let it flow through you, it should allow you to activate it and still fully control it."

Kacchan rolls his eyes but uncrosses his arms and lets his eyes slip shut to concentrate anyway.

Izuku watches him take several steadying breathes before he feels the air around him crackle with electricity, causing every hair on his body to stand on end. When the green energy flows around the stocky form in front of him all of the blood in Kacchan body seems to rush south, causing Izuku to struggle to breath.

Kacchan snapped open glowing green eyes, and Izuku's knees went weak. When Kacchan finally attempted to move and flashed past Izuku at the speed of light, Izuku's heart just about flatlined before it began pounding so loudly it made Izuku's ears ring.

_Oh, so that's why the Ground Beta dream was so intense. Full cowl really sets him off._

Kacchan rushes back up to Izuku so fast that when he stops two feet in front of him the air that smacks into Izuku from his momentum causes him to stumble back. The raw energy pulsing between the duo as Kacchan heaved in breathes, large eyes wild with excitement, body vibrating with barely contained power, set Izuku's whole body alight.

_Scratch that. Power—no _strength_, is his aphrodisiac._

"That," Kacchan rasped, "Is some good shit."

Izuku could only stare, mouth parted slightly, as he panted and practically drooled over the powerhouse surging in front of him.

"See something you like, nerd?"

Izuku snaps out of it immediately, face up in flames, "_What_—n-no, _no_! Your body seems to see something _you_ like, though, obviously."

Kacchan's smile begins to look forced and his ears tinge pink, but he shrugs nonchalantly, "Maybe it does," is all he says, leaving Izuku floundering for a retort when Aizawa finally cuts through the tension.

"Well I'd love to make it to my bed sometime today and it seems Bakugou has finally decided to get his shit together, so why don't we get this over with already. Take your places on either side of the intersection and wait for the go ahead."

Izuku looks back over to Kacchan who is giving him a wry smile, "You heard the man. Head over to your side. But make sure you move nice and slow when you're walking away from me, I'm trying to see something."

_He's toying with you, don't rise to the bait._

Izuku turns to make his way to his side of the street, but he doesn't give Kacchan the satisfaction of moving slowly.

"My shoulders, huh?" he asks, and Izuku's fists clench as he turns around a dozen meters away from Kaccahn, "Understandable, I work hard on those. I'm glad someone notices."

_You're above this. Wait until you can talk like adults, not just throw out all the embarrassing information you know about him like he is._

"GO!" Yamada commands.

They both take off towards each other instantaneously. Kacchan using One for All is much quicker so Izuku raises a palm to set a mild explosion, sending the other boy back before he could make contact. Kacchan chuckles while coughing a bit, "Yeah I do look pretty hot setting off my Quirk, don't I? Do that again, I like the tingle that went down your spine."

Izuku snarls and rushes him, rearing up to set off another blast, but Kacchan is up and running in a flash.

He rounds on Izuku who barely misses a punch to the face before countering with blast that is evaded easily. They continue at hand to hand for a bit, both sweating in the late day heat, panting with exertion, all the while Kacchan is still flinging snarky comments Izuku's way.

"Do you ever shut the _fuck_ up?" Izuku growls as he lands a hit to Kacchan's ribs.

"Shit," Kacchan rasps as he clutches his side, "I should've known you'd actually be into the swearing," Kacchan laughs, "Mmm say it again, your toes curling is fun," he murmurs seductively, and then he's off again, leaving Izuku spinning in circles trying to keep up with his movements. The green flashes left in his wake the only indication that he was circling Izuku.

"Stop running!"

Kacchan stops at the other end of the block, smiling darkly, "Me? Run?" he asks, voice dropping dangerously, "Never."

He took two huge bounds, the concrete under his feet crumbling, before he took off in the air. Izuku wasted no time getting himself of the ground as well and propelling himself at the human bullet coming towards him. He was still a bit off center in the air but this was Kacchan first time ever off the ground with one for all, so Izuku knew he had the upper hand.

They clashed midair and grappled to one up each other. An overwhelming sense of déjà vu took over as Izuku flipped their positions and set off a blast that made his arm feel like it would rip from its socket, sending them to the unforgiving ground below in a streak of heat.

They landed with Kacchan on his back and Izuku pinning him with no room for escape, a perfect echo of their fight just a few days prior. Their heavy breathing and the dust settling are the only noises Izuku can hear over his own heartbeat pounding in his ears.

Kacchan chuckles underneath him, "I win," he grates out.

Izuku loosens his hold in surprise—a mistake.

"What do you mean, you win?" Izuku demands, brows furrowing, "I have you pinned."

Kacchan slips a hand from Izuku's weakened grasp and grabs him by the collar, bringing them nose to nose, crimson and emerald clashing like a forest fire, with every bit the same amount of heat and intensity. And then a sharp grin cut across Kacchan's face.

"Exactly," he whispers, before dragging Izuku's lips down to his own—_hard_.


	11. Katsuki is a Fool

_Taunt Deku, _he'd thought, _rile him up. See just how much you can ruffle those innocent little feathers._ The famous last words to run through his mind before he'd proceeded to piss Deku off enough for the little asshole to actually _slam him through the asphalt_ with no remorse.

The irony of how everything had transpired wasn't lost on him. Katsuki was fully aware that Karma was a bitch, he just hadn't realized she was a bitch that worked so damn fast.

He could almost see her smugly kicking her feet up, throwing back popcorn, and cackling as she rewound and replayed the same scene out from a few days prior. This time flipping the script so it was depicted in some confusing mirroring reality, where Katsuki found himself in the exact same compromising position he'd forced Deku into. He wouldn't be surprised if she threw in him having to kiss himself just for the hell of it.

It's fine. He's glad someone up there is having a good time, because while his life is definitely one big cosmic joke, Katsuki certainly isn't fucking laughing.

Why he'd believed that unveiling Deku's well-kept crush on him would give him the upper hand in this shitfest they'd found themselves, he has no idea. At the time it'd seemed plausible, but now with his back smarting and his head pounding due to the prone position of being pummeled into the ground, he realizes that once _again_ he'd made the mistake of underestimating Deku—like an _idiot_.

A buffoon.

An absolute circus clown.

But kissing Deku had _not_ been his intention, for the record, thank you very much. Katsuki's a fair man, he can admit to being a dumbass, and so, with that being said, he takes full responsibility for everything up until their lips had met—but that final stunt wasn't his fault!

Deku's body is a little _shit_.

It had already been practically drooling over Katsuki's body before the match had even started. And then every explosion, grunt, or physical contact made by the blonde there after only continued to dim Deku's brain to the max. It's a wonder Katsuki was able to put up any semblance of a fight at all!

Though it wasn't until they were flush together on the ground, heavy breaths intermingling, faces centimeters apart, that everything took one final turn for the worse, because now the object of Deku's body's desires was pressed against him. It was causing the nerd's body to overheat which left Katsuki trapped inside just floundering to not combust.

It hadn't helped that Katsuki was already disoriented (see again the plummet into asphalt), so in the moment it had been effortless to let Deku's body take over. It was already begging to take control anyway, so when Katsuki gave it the reigns it didn't even hesitate to _run_ with them. Which was made obvious when Katsuki's sole focus suddenly became the features above him. Deku's body was drinking in the way the light of the setting sun was hitting the angled planes of the face Katsuki had seen in the mirror every day of his life up until this past week.

The soft light was shimmering through the still falling soot from the aftermath of their crash landing, cascading them in a thin veil of dirt. Katsuki's likely concussion and the effect of the particles swirling around them made the whole scene feel like it was playing out in slow motion. The sweat on his blonde brows was glistening, dripping like honey down his temple. The last of the day's rays cut through his incredibly long lashes, casting shadows across his high, proud cheekbones and glinting into his eyes. God, those eyes. Deku's body had to have been obsessed with them because Katsuki couldn't recall any time he'd _ever_ seen them and the word 'mesmerizing' came to mind. The light was catching them in the prettiest way, illuminating those usually crimson orbs so they shined like rubies being unearthed, buried treasure finally seeing the light of day.

His usual intense expression was washed in a soft blush, the exertion of their brawl playing a factor, but there was no doubt with the way it was rapidly creeping up to his ears that _Katsuki's_ body having _Deku's_ underneath him was doing _things_. And the flustered stain darkening his perfect complexion only aided in riling up _Deku's_ body even _further_.

It was an absolute clusterfuck that, in reality, probably only lasted all of about thirty seconds, but Katsuki was finding it extremely difficult to even begin to keep up with the myriad of emotions playing out between the pair of them with the way those eyes were fucking up Deku's already compromised cognitive functions.

At some point Katsuki found himself declaring he'd won, which was honestly just a last ditch effort to try and throw Deku off, so he'd be able to come out on top for this spar. But, of course, that move had also backfired when Deku had decided to reply and call him out on his bullshit, because then Deku's body had found something it'd liked more than Katsuki's eyes. Its gaze had dropped down to the soft lips still parted and panting, encasing perfectly white teeth. And when a wet tongue poked out to swipe across plush pink flesh the tentative brain to motor connection he'd been grappling with all afternoon finally shut down completely.

Katsuki doesn't know if he said anything in return, doesn't know how his hand got free, doesn't even know when his eyes slipped shut. All he knows is he had this—this _need_. A strong fucking need to feel those lips on his own. Deku's body was aching to touch, to _taste_…and Katuski, in his weakened, confused state, had indulged it.

Like a fool.

The next instant he felt their mouths come together, noses smashing into each other roughly with the amount of force he'd used to drag the other boy down. It was almost painful, truthfully, but Deku's body was positively _singing_. Even if the smearing of lips was messy and gross and only lasted a mere five seconds before Deku shoved his face away, his compact little body was literally vibrating with excitement nonetheless.

So yeah, Deku's body is a little shit, and the kiss wasn't Katsuki's fault, ok?

But Katsuki couldn't help a small part of himself feeling at ease with knowing that Deku wanted him this badly. That he wasn't the only one struggling with unrequited (or so he'd thought) desires, well at least physically, who knows if the nerd sees anything in Katsuki past the surface level. But discovering Deku's needy reaction had Katsuki's mind reeling, there was so much to unpack here, with how desperate Deku seemed to be to _touch_ Katsuki_._

But the large hand now smashing across his face and the raging eyes staring down at him promising murder don't leave much time to flesh out feelings. "What the _hell_, Kacchan?" Deku hissed, his eyes were wide with shock but they were quickly narrowing and taking on a dangerous, defensive edge.

It was a fabulous question, really. Not that Katsuki had the answer. His mouth was open to respond, but no words came to his aid. He was feeling cornered and was only a handful of moments away from falling back on his tried and true method of explosive anger to get him out of this situation, but thankfully Yamada broke the tension at the very last second.

"Nobody move! Who won?—shit, I can't see anything with all this dust—oh, Christ, it's in my mouth," he spluttered as he stumbled over the now broken road and into view, waving his hand in front of his face in attempt to clear the hazy air around him. When his eyes finally find the pair of them his face sours.

"I take it your lack of celebration means _I_ won," the sound of Aizawa's lazy drawl reaches them before his figure does. The rest of the dust finally settling to reveal the disheveled man as he sauntered over to where Mic was visibly pouting, his signature creepy smile physically causing the two boys still on the ground to cringe.

"This isn't fair, I don't get to see their combat skills every day, so the odds were already stacked against me! Plus, Bakugou was forced to spar right after nearly passing out, I need a rematch," Yamada states.

"Interesting. I distinctly remember you saying 'Bakugou could beat Midoriya on his best day, no matter what body he's in'," Deku protests with an indignant 'hey!', but Aizawa continues on, "So—how do the kids say it? 'Keep that same energy'?" This time all three of the others cringe.

Yamada drags his hands down his face and scrubs furiously before letting his lanky arms drop to his sides dramatically and pointedly glaring at Deku, "You know, kid, you've really been surprising me all day," A small, prideful smile forms on Deku's face, "—in the worst ways," Yamada finishes, deadpan, to which Deku's face falls immediately.

Katsuki pushes Deku off of him and stands, ignoring the intense pain shooting up his spine and the splitting headache in favor of ripping into the two men somehow partially responsible for this fucking mess they were in, "Hey, lay off, asshole, no one gets to talk him like that but _me_," he slurs while poking a hard thumb into his chest. "And I thought you two were supposed to be _helping_ us, not betting on one of us to fail, dickheads," he then whips around to point accusingly at Aizawa, stumbling with the force of the turn, "And you! _You_ bet against _me_? Whose fucking side are you on?!"

Katsuki blearily sees three sets of eyes staring at him like he's grown a second head. He blinks rapidly trying to adjust to everything spinning around him. "And also- _wuh_? I mean-? Yeah also just-, shit, fuckin', _ugh_ can you idiots stop _swaying_, fuck, I'm trying to make words over here." There was double of everything and the ringing in his ears was making it hard to tell if people were responding. _Are they? Are these fuckers even _listening_?!_

"Hellooo?!" Katsuki blares, thrusting his arms out wide, throwing himself off balance and falling flat on his ass.

"Oh my god, Aizawa," Yamada laughs, pointing at Katsuki, "that is _so_ you when you're giving your bi-annual 'this-is-the-next-generation-protecting-the-world?' rant after you've graded midterms and are three quarters of the way through your own bottle of sake," he guffawed holding his side, "No one ever knows what you're saying, but it's hilarious!" He says wiping a tear, "Go on drunk whisperer, what is he saying?"

"You're _loud_," is Aizawa's only reply before shoving Yamada away.

"Wait, so does anyone actually know what he's saying?" Deku asks, he still looks pissed but he's peering curiously at Katsuki now, who proceeds to take a wild swipe at his face.

_Stupid face causing all this dumb shit._

"Half the time he's talking I just hear the trombone noises adult characters make in those Peanuts cartoons, you know? So, no, I definitely don't know what the hell he's going on about now, but—," Aizawa watches as Katsuki slumps in on himself and falls to the side in a heap, "Yeah he's definitely got a concussion," he sighs, unimpressed with his hotheaded student once again.

"So, problem child, you're in charge of carrying him again. The old lady is _not_ going to be happy to see 'Midoriya' in this bad of shape again, so we'll go with you to plead his case," he shakes his head and smacks Yamada in the back of his, telling him to knock of the rambunctious laughter he was still caught up in, which only rears it back up again as they make towards the exit and back to campus.

Katsuki heard feet shuffling on the gravel next to him and he looks up to find Deku hovering over him. "I _should_ just leave you here," he says squatting down to pin Katsuki with sneer. Katsuki pouts. He stretches his arms up weakly, making grabby hands for Deku to pick him up and Deku only glares in return.

_Acting like a child probably isn't doing me any favors right now but it's better than being coherent enough to talk about what just happened. Avoid the elephant in the room and maybe it'll disappear? Right?_

"Don't think you're out of talking about what happened because you're being cute," he grumbles as he hefts Katsuki's dead weight into his arms.

_Dammit...he called me cute though!_

Katsuki easily fell into his arms, cuddling up and basking in his body's abnormally high temperature, for once enjoying the way Deku's body lit up under the bigger boy's touch. His eyes we threatening to shut, everything was still blurry and he couldn't focus for shit, but he fought the wave of sleep coming over him to take in the ways Deku's body was reacting to Katsuki's holding him close.

A sense of calm crept over him slowly, a security blanket wrapping its way around his senses. His body was humming with the way those strong arms were handling him, heart thundering when he took in the perplexed face staring down at him, crimson eyes boring into him.

"Pretty eyes," Katsuki garbles eloquently.

"They're yours," Deku replies dryly, "conceited much?"

"Hmmm—no, nope, _you_ like them. _A lot_. 'Rubies'," Katsuki snorts, "Gay."

He can see Deku's face start to flush as he sputters out a reply, "Oh, ok, like the word '_emeralds'_ hasn't been floating around in your head every time my eyes come into view," he scoffs, "And if we're throwing out the gayest descriptors for features I'd like to put 'constellations' for my freckles into the running," Deku rolls his eyes, "Who would've thought _your_ brain was even capable of suppling a metaphor that's not vulgar, let alone _sweet_."

_Ok, geez, so I'm gay for your nerdy ass. Sue me._

Katsuki can't make his mouth do words so he just chuckles in reply as Deku continues to ramble on about who knows what. Surely on any other occasion he'd be mortified that Deku's has heard the gushy shit that runs through his mind every now and again, but right now Katsuki was _tired_. So, so what if the nerd knows he thinks he's cute? How much worse could this situation really get?

_Everything's fine._

Exhaustion is taking over, sleep slamming into him in strong waves, pulling him quickly into unconsciousness. He's just about to succumb to it, give in, when something in his peripheral catches the last bit of his waning attention.

A nondescript figure stalks the shadows of the alleyways Deku is passing, hovering just almost out of sight as it follows the duo through the desolate city streets. Katsuki's not sure if it's even real with the way it almost completely disappears when he looks at it straight on. He blinks rapidly, trying to focus, only succeeding in blurring any details of the intruder even further. Trying to point them out proves difficult when Katsuki can barely even lift his head anymore and Deku seems completely oblivious to both their new friend and Katsuki's weak attempts to get his attention.

Suddenly the figure steps out of the shadows and into the street behind them. Katsuki lets his head fall from Deku's chest, gazing past Deku's arm to get one last glimpse of the barely there specter before the sunlight completely obscured it from Katsuki's already dimming vision.

_Ok, so maybe everything isn't fine._

The last thing he sees is a disembodied smile gleaming at him wickedly. He passed out seconds later in Deku's arms, just as the mysterious visitor's sharp canines evaporated into thin air. He's still not sure if he was hallucinating or not but he's positive an ominous chuckle reached his ears just as his eyes slipped shut for good, a cold shiver shrieking down his spine as he finally lost his fight with sleep.

That night all he dreamed of were precious gem stones and elusive treasure hunters.

Katsuki would kill to have just _one_ time where he woke up in Deku's body without _something_ effectively turning his day to shit. So far it had gone: wake up in another body—learn they were stuck like this for who the fuck knew how long, wake up to own boner—had to punch himself in the balls to save face. The days avoiding Deku still didn't rid him of this curse. Those days he, instead, had just been woken up by nerdy ass glasses or the candy cane motherfucker knocking on his door and then was forced to have a conversation with them like he fucking cared shit all about what was coming out of their mouths. This morning, though? Took the cake.

Because this morning he got the absolute _pleasure_ of realizing his young life was going to come to an end. Ironically, by the hand of the exact same person who had, unfortunately, allowed it to begin. He gawked down at the phone in his hand.

_Seventeen_ missed calls and nine voicemails from his mother.

"Deku, what the actual fuck," he wasn't yelling, voice wasn't even raised, sheer panic had taken over at this point as he tried to comprehend why the boy in front of him was hell bent on getting him murdered.

Deku was pacing in the corner of the room, he'd been doing that for ten minutes now. That and the muttering had started up right after he had barged into the room, waking Katuski with the way the door reverberated as a result of his harsh slamming of it behind him, and ripping the covers off of him to gain his undivided attention. He continued to ignore all of Katsuki's expletives in favor of tossing him his phone and stating simply, "We have a problem."

Katsuki could only chuckle hysterically at the comment now that he'd seen what the nerd was so worked up about. A _problem_ is a mild inconvenience, something that usually makes the day harder, but ultimately something you could move past. Like running out of conditioner or locking your keys in your car. But ignoring Mitsuki Bakugou? To this degree? This was a fucking _disaster_, of apocalyptic proportions. And the voicemails only drove that point home even further.

_"Call me back brat, we still need you home at least once this week to help set up for this weekend."_

_"Oi, I know your attention span is shit, so I'm here to remind you that you'd better be here before Saturday to help set this shit up." _The silent 'or else' was heavily implied.

The next three were just more ranting about having an ungrateful son who went off to school and forgot all about the people who busted their asses to get him there. Her voice was steadily rising with each new message and her tone was becoming all the more menacing.

_"I swear to fucking God Katsuki you better have gotten snatched up by another villain, because that is the _only_ thing that will save you from me shoving my foot up your ass! Call your mother back!"_

_"I didn't carry in my fucking womb for nine months to be disrespected like this, ANSWER THE GODDAM PHONE!"_

_"YOU BETTER HOPE TO ANY GOD YOU CAN THAT ALL THOSE YEARS OF QUIRK TRAINING WE SLAVED FOR PAID OFF—BECAUSE I'M COMING FOR YOU."_

Katsuki's hands were shaking by the time he got to the last voicemail in his inbox. And when he heard the cheery voice coming through the speaker he blanched. _Oh, no_. He sees the way Deku tenses beside him as well, Katsuki's body understanding the deceiving lilt in his mother's voice.

_"Hello darling. My only boy. Light of my life. Remember when I told you a month ago that your father decided on having an anniversary celebration after all and we wanted you to help set up? You know, it's funny because I swore we agreed on you coming home throughout the week to help get the house together, but yet here I am still not having heard a word from you all week. And now it's Friday, the day before the party and you still won't answer your phone,"_ she laughs and it sends a shiver down both Katsuki and Deku's spines. It was now Saturday morning. _"Just wanted to remind you that if you aren't here tomorrow things won't be pleasant and that I'd hate to have to come up and embarrass you in front of your friends," _she sing songs, and then the line goes dead.

Her sickly sweet doting mother voice may fool the untrained ear but Katsuki knew that it was only reserved for, as she put it: 'special circumstances'; which Katsuki had learned was code for having his ass handed to him by a small blonde incubus who could literally put the fear of God into men triple her size. He still wasn't convinced that she didn't have some kind of intimidation Quirk, she'd be a great detective with the way she could get others to cower and give in to demands. The woman was a fucking force of nature…and here Deku was ignoring her like she wouldn't ring his neck for far less!

He finally looked up at Deku horror-stricken, "What have you done."

Deku looked nervous, as he rightfully should be, hell he should be pissing his pants. "I didn't know! You have her notifications turned off! Who turns off alerts for their _mom_?!" Deku's voice was high, defensive, scared.

"You've met my fucking mom! Is that even a question right now?!" Katsuki's voice was higher, attacking, horrified. "And you still see the little numbers pop up outside the app! I only talk to a few people Deku, how did you not notice this number going into _double digits_ before now?" he demanded, pointing at the phone accusingly.

"You _told_ me not to message anyone," he answered, "It was on the extensive list of 'do's & don't's' in your body."

"I told you not to send messages with the fucking _emojis_ Deku, I didn't say 'ignore my phone altogether' and I _definitely_ did _not_ say not to answer phone calls from my parents, _especially_ Satan herself."

"I don't know how to send messages any other way Kacchan! So I just left the phone thing alone completely. And how was I supposed to know she was calling if you mute her?!" he pointed out, pitch rising, "And why didn't you say anything about a party?! I would've made sure to keep up with her if I had just known!"

Katsuki scrubbed his hands over face before spreading his arms wide, "If you haven't noticed I've been kind of going through a life crises over here, Deku. Excuse the fuck out of me for some stupid party slipping my mind," Katsuki spat out.

Deku released a shaky sigh, running his hands through his now ash-blonde hair before plastering a tight lipped smile onto his face. "It's fine, right? You can just call her back and everything will be fine."

Katsuki just blinked at him, in awe of his stupidity. _I'm seriously crushing on a fucking idiot._

"Deku, the old man has left a message already," Katsuki stated, showing Deku the single voicemail from his father, "Your life is over."

"M-me?! How—how me?! What does your dad have to do with any of this?"

"My dad only calls when the old lady has completely lost her shit. So that means that crazy bitch has it out for me—_you_ right now, since you're currently in my body, so that's it. You're dead. I mean, you've gotta be, I've never gone more than six missed calls. This—this is uncharted territory, I just can't see you coming back from this."

Deku gave him a pleading look, and was no doubt about to start blubbering when the phone went off. Katsuki jumped at the sound cutting through the quiet morning atmosphere. It was his father. He looked up at Deku, giving him a stern look and thrusting the device towards him. Deku's eyes bugged out as he shook his head no and shoved it back towards Katsuki.

They played hot potato with the phone right up until the call almost ended and then Katsuki pressed the green button and threw the phone at Deku one last time with a winning smirk.

"Hello?" The comforting tone of his dad came through the speaker, almost the polar opposite of the she-devil they'd been listening to for the past few minutes. Deku was frozen, phone just lying in his hands as he hesitated to say anything. Katsuki gesticulated for him to fucking move his mouth, but the nerd just stood there uselessly.

"Katsuki? Son? Are you there?" But Deku mouth just opened and closed with no sound being produced.

"Son, I know you're scared. Which is good, a healthy amount of fear of that woman shows self-preservation. But I promise I've talked her back from the ledge…I think. If you aren't here today, though, I can't guarantee anything," Masaru states solemnly. "Will you be here by noon?"

When Deku doesn't immediately answer Katsuki throws his hands up and mimes throttling him. And then finally, _finally_ Deku utters out a gruff, "Yeah."

Masaru lets out a relieved sigh, "Thank God," he can hear the clicking of his mother's heels closing in on the other end of the phone and his father quickly ends the call, whispering conspiratorially, "She's coming, don't want to get her riled up again. Wear the important suit today, industry people will be here. Also I was told to tell you to bring Izuku. Inko is coming and she hasn't heard from him in a while either, tell him to look nice." Deku hasn't said a word since is agreeance and Masaru doesn't seem to care, he ends the call with an 'I love you, son' and then threw in a 'good luck' for good measure. Deku stood there just staring at the device in his hands after he'd hung up.

"Jesus, Deku, you literally _never_ shut the fuck up, but when I actually _need_ you to speak you're suddenly turn into fucking Koda?" He moves to snatch the phone from Deku, but Deku grabs his wrist first.

"Oi, what the fu—,"

"Kacchan, we can't go to the party." It may just be the soft grey light of the overcast morning seeping in through the shades, but Deku face looked totally devoid of blood.

"Are you insane? We're going. I have plans to live past today, and you already told the old man we'd be there. So, pull up your fucking big boy pants and go find the suit in the back of closet, I'll throw on whatever sad excuse for an outfit you have in here an—,"

"Kacchan they'll _know_. They're our _parents_. I-I-I," Deku fisted his hands in his own hair, staring at the ground but seeing nothing.

"Fuck, don't glitch out on me nerd," Katsuki reached out his hands to comfort the other boy before he caught himself. That was a definitely a Deku reaction, but whether or not it was his body or Katsuki who wanted to console was still up for debate.

So he stands there awkwardly watching the other boy spiral before he decides, _fuck it_, and grabs Deku's face like he'd done to Katsuki before they'd had that first shitty talk with Aizawa. The blond's cheeks were smooshed between his fingers, lips pursed, eyes wide with surprise and Katsuki had to suppress his fight or flight urge as he saw the blush spread out over Deku's face, but fuck at least he had some color to him again.

The 'no physical contact' rule he'd made for himself was out the window now anyway, might as well let the nerd see how his body reacts to his for once without injuring him or redirecting his attention with an argument. This is what he wanted, right? For Deku to see him in a different light? One that didn't involve all the middle school bullshit or the misplaced feelings?

Katsuki looked him in the eye, knowing it would stall Katsuki's body just enough to get the other boy to do as he said. "Go change into the suit in the back of my closet and meet me downstairs when you're done. We need to leave soon."

Deku nodded, dazed, before making his way out of the room, shooting one last considering glance over his shoulder, while Katsuki held his gaze and his breath so as not to spook him back into a frenzy. When the door clicked closed Katsuki collapsed on the bed.

_I'm screwed._

An hour later they'd met in the common room. A cacophony of cat calls and whistles went up as most of 1-A was up and socializing by this point of the day. It was probably for the best that others were there anyway because Deku's body just about fell out when it saw the blonde walk through the door in his impeccably tailored suit. More people there meant distractions for Deku as Katsuki pulled himself back together.

Deku had forgone the tie, as instructed, and the first two buttons of his shirt were undone, showing off just a hint of skin, one hand stuffed in his pocket and textbook scowl on his face. He was the definition of suave and Katsuki's mouth was _dry_. He mentally thanked the hag for having his father design it as he filed away Deku's body's reaction to the garment for another time.

"Hot date?" Mina waggled her eyebrow at the two of them.

Katsuki replied 'family thing', but not before Deku replied with a clipped 'fuck off'. Katuski gave him a stunned look but the other boy just headed for the doors. Katsuki looked around and saw that no one had batted an eye at their interaction with the group. His eyes landed on Ochacko who gave him an exuberant wave goodbye, which immediately ruined his excitement, and he turned on his heel without reciprocating it, quickly moving to catch up with Deku.

"You know, that's the first time we've been around other people and passed as each other," Katsuki slides a smug glance Deku's way.

"The real test will be you not cussing out your mom on sight as my mother looks on in horror at her baby sounding like a sailor," Deku replies dryly. Katsuki can't argue with that, but rolls his eyes in response anyway as they make their way through the front gate.

Thirty minutes later they had stopped off at a small outdoor market, picking up spicy chocolates and flowers in a last ditch effort to beg for mercy from his mother. Deku just about jumped out of his skin when Katsuki had reached into his pants pockets to pull out his wallet so he could tell him which card to use. Katsuki was still smirking to himself about the stunt as they got onto the last leg of the train ride to their side of town.

The train was packed and more people were piling in, the Saturday afternoon causing them to be right in the thick of foot traffic. They had no choice but to stand already when they first got on and as more people bustled in they found themselves being smashed nose to nose, basically holding hands on the pole they held onto. The train took off and they pressed impossibly closer by the momentum of the start causing everyone to jostle.

They locked eyes and even with all the chatter going on in the box car it was as if they'd carved out their own little space where time stood still. It was quiet, all Katsuki could hear was the blood rushing in time with his heartbeat in his ears. Those scarlet eyes dimming and illuminating with the light of the midday sun playing peek-a-boo as they came and went out of tunnels. He could feel heat creeping up his face and he noticed Deku wasn't fairing any better. Small talk has never been one of Katsuki's strong suits, but he needed to say something to alleviate some of the awkwardness.

He clears his throat before starting. "So. What happened after I passed out?" Katsuki feels something tugging at the edges of his memory, something that felt important, but then Deku is talking.

"Uh," he blinks a few times, shaking his head to clear it, "We took you to Recovery Girl. She's pissed by the way, so thanks for that, I think you brought down my number of visits even lower than before."

Katsuki snickers, "Not my problem."

Deku rolls his eyes, but continues. "Oh. But you know how they bet against us?" Katusku frowns, but nods, "Well turns out the loser has to teach the sex ed class to the first years this year."

"Are you serious? What did Yamada say?" Katsuki couldn't help the grin that spread across his face.

"He literally was begging with Aizawa the whole way back to the dorms for 'anything but that'," he mimicked Yamada's sob, "He actually had tears in his eyes."

Both boys dissolved into laughter. They caught a bunch of furtive glances from those surrounding them as they doubled over. Katsuki straightened back up first in time to catch sight of Deku smiling. Deku's body was taking full advantage of seeing a full fledge smile on his face and Katsuki was too, it was a sight he was also quite unfamiliar with. He could feel a fond smile pulling at his own lips when Deku finally caught his breath and they both tampered out their laughing fit with a handful of awkward giggles. It was silent for a beat and then Deku ruffled the back of his hair, gaze averted.

"So…are we going to talk about what happened last night _before_ you passed out or…?"

Katsuki instantly stiffened, "_Here_, nerd. Really?"

"When then, Kacchan? You've been avoiding me for days and then you kissed me out of nowhere. I think I deserve an explainatio—"

"Fuck, Deku, what do you want me to say? I can't help your shitty body is _obsessed_ with mine."

Ok, so maybe it's hard to break the deflection habit, he's working on it. Either way the light hearted mood was all but obliterated now as Deku's face took on a defensive edge.

"_My_ body obsessed with _yours_?" Deku chuckles a humorless laugh as the doors to the train slide open, "Ok." He untangles their hands and steps off the train.

"Oi!" Katsuki calls after him, "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" He had a pretty good idea, but he didn't know how much Deku actually knew yet so it couldn't hurt to clarify before he made an even bigger ass out of himself.

The rest of the five minute walk to Katsuki's house was filled with Katsuki denying he'd been the one to kiss Deku, that it was Deku's body that had done it and Deku rolling his eyes in disbelief. The flowers and chocolates were now in disarray as both boys flailed their arms and jabbed points out in argument. The heat of the day wasn't helping to satiate the hostility between them, only helping to fuel the flame.

They were finally coming up the paved path to his front door when Deku had had enough. "You're full of _shit_. You know you planned that kiss," he states angrily and oh boy Deku's swearing. He's pissed.

"No. I. Didn't." Katsuki spits back, the picture of obstinacy, also having had enough.

"You'd been egging me on the entire fight, Kacchan. I'm just supposed to believe that you had _nothing_ to do with it?"

Katsuki throws his hands up in the air. "Like kissing _myself_ has _ever_ been my idea for our first kiss, asshole. Get the fuck out of here," he scoffs, pushing the doorbell before crossing his arms and glaring at the ground.

"Is this some kind of joke to y—wait," Deku's expression softens considerably as his voice drops to a whisper, "Does that mean you've thought about of first kiss?"

Katsuki feels himself flush up to his hairline, "W-what. _What_?! _NO_. You shitty nerd, who the fuck would _ever_ think about kissing _you_!"

"I mean, if your dreams are any indication, you've thought about doing much less innocent things to me. Never been any kissing though," he answers smugly.

Katsuki doesn't even get an actual reply out, just sputtered threats and curses as his face practically caught fire while he floundered for a response.

"So how have you pictured our first kiss then?" Deku asks, moving into his space and staring down at him, one brow quirked, smirk playing on his lips.

Deku continues to crowd his space and it's becoming increasingly more difficult to breath. Deku's body is all in favor for where this conversation is going, but Katsuki is just wishing the ground would up and swallow him already.

_Now would be a fantastic time for death to claim me. Of course he got the fucking sex dreams while I got a trip down memory lane. Where is the Freaky Friday bastard in charge of this shit, I just want to talk._

The door bangs open then and Katuski says a small prayer in thanks to whatever god is listening when Deku's attention is drawn away from him. But then a dark chuckle reverberates through them and both boys still.

"Well," they turn to see Katuki's spitting image in a designer gown as she passes the threshold of the house. A predatory smile cuts across Mitsuki's face as her voice drips with venom, "look who we have here."


	12. Izuku's Day from Hell

So, the party was up in flames—_literally_—and when the roof of the gazebo rained down in a fiery inferno, Izuku couldn't stop the hysterical little giggle that started up in the back of his throat.

Because at this point, what else could he really do but laugh?

Mitsuki stood across the yard resembling some kind of goddess of war. The raw power radiating off of her shot a chill straight to his core and he had to consciously fight the urge to get on his knees and beg to be spared.

Seething on the steps of painstakingly decorated wooden stage that was presently burning to the ground, Mitsuki was altogether unfazed by the large amount of debris that had just barely missed her. All her attention was dedicated to glaring through Izuku with a rage and aggressiveness that rivaled the flames overtaking everything.

And with a proper lock on her target through the roaring wall of rapidly spreading heat growing between them she stalked forward. The intent to kill was evident—etched into every inch of her never aging face.

Izuku took a calculated step back.

She was breathtaking in the glow of the blaze, shadows playing across the sharp angles of her face, as she seemingly commanded the destruction and chaos descending upon them. If no one knew any better it would look as if _she'd_ brought the party to its scorching end by her own hand.

A line of fire was slowly licking its way up the train of her couture gown, dragging across the grass, leaving a searing trail behind her. The flames danced in her all too familiar crimson eyes, the evil glint behind them making it undeniable whose mother she was. She looked so much like Kacchan standing in the glory of one of his Howitzers, it was uncanny. It actually would have been kind of amazing, really, to pick out all the similarities in that moment—if he wasn't seriously about to be murdered.

They'd had a plan. It was foolproof plan.

_An idiot could've pulled off this plan_.

Yet, here he was, plan as torched as the backyard. So, what did that make Izuku?

He had no idea how it had all turned to shit so quickly. Everything had been going fine, well fine _enough_, until his—_Kacchan's_ speech.

Izuku was still trying to wrap his mind around it and its meaning. Because he just didn't understand what Kacchan _wanted_! His body's reaction said one thing, while his actual words said another, and his attitude something altogether different from that! He let out another strangled wheeze of a laugh.

_Why. _Why_ won't he just be straight up with m—_

A piercing scream cut through Izuku's thoughts. He chanced a glance to his side and caught the tail end of a man swatting out a small fire spreading on a woman's dress sleeve. When he turned his head back around Mitsuki was another step closer.

"Something funny?" she asked in a sweet tone that contrasted drastically with the sharp curl of her tight-lipped smile.

The disbelieving barely there quirk of his lips Izuku had already completely forgotten was on his face quickly disappeared.

_Oh, you know, the usual._ J_ust that it seems I was born to only know suffering. Hilarious!_

Izuku knows better than respond. Instead continues to back up slow enough to not set her off and to also allow him space to truly take stock of the situation.

The guests that weren't coughing from the overwhelming amount of smoke rising in the air were screaming as they fought and scrambled over each other to reach the fenced off exit. Decorations were catching light and dropping from the sky like falling stars, but decidedly much more hazardous as they caught more table clothes on fire upon their landing.

Inko, his poor mother, was still effectively out of commission. Her small body completely limp in a woman Izuku didn't know's lap, being fanned with a napkin vigorously. The stranger was attempting to rouse her from her sudden loss of consciousness, but it looked like a lost cause.

Masaru, his last line of defense, was on the ground. One hand clamped to his nose in an attempt to stop the excessive amount of blood leaking from it, his glasses cracked and crooked on his face as his shouts for his wife to show mercy fell on deaf ears.

Kacchan was M.I.A, off chasing, for all intents and purposes, a _ghost_.

And here Izuku stood, alone and terrified, in a face-off with the mother of his _idiot_ crush, who had literally _just_ warned him of how thin the ice was that he was treading. She'd told him that if they ruined this party there would be hell to pay, so forgive him if he couldn't contain his laughter as the metaphor came to life before his eyes.

Everything in sight was currently ablaze and the Devil herself was primed and ready to dish out his punishment. The screams of terror and eerie wail of sirens in the distance a terrifying soundtrack that really added a nice 'End of Times' vibe to Izuku's last few seconds on Earth.

Another step forward brought Mitsuki onto the porch with Izuku, about ten feet away now, the distance becoming alarmingly shorter as she continued to stalk forward.

The ominous hollow clicking of her designer heels on the wooden planks might as well have been the nails in his coffin, being as they were just as thunderously loud and equally as damning. But nothing was quite as loud as Izuku's heartbeat pounding in his ears. Every nerve ending in Kacchan's body was telling Izuku to _run_.

He felt his lower back bump against the gift table he'd been in charge of setting up earlier, and with another step taken by Mitsuki his angle to reach the back door of the house to escape was now effectively cut off. It was over. He was stuck.

She removed the last bit of space between them and just as she was about to loom over him, Masaru was there. A mess of charred clothes and soot as well as bloodied mouth and hands—safe guarding Izuku for the umpteenth time that day despite his obvious injuries. He stood tall and resolutely, prepared to face the monster that was his wife head on.

Mitsuki was unfazed by his act of valor and responded so calmly Izuku's blood ran cold: "Move, or die with him. You decide."

Masaru's bravery had started at the as soon as they arrived.

There had been a ten second window between Mitsuki opening the door and her cutting through the space between them with a perfectly manicured hand, which Izuku had to contemplate if he'd really truly accomplished anything in his brief life.

Blood red lacquered nails filed to near claws were coming for him and Izuku was resigned to accept his untimely demise. He'd clinched his eyes shut, praying she'd just be merciful and end it quickly, when Masaru had stepped in.

He'd just _appeared_, blocking off Mitsuki and smiling brightly, sunlight streaming down to further illuminate his blinding, benevolent presence and Izuku was sure he was staring into the face of God. Albeit a slightly flushed, sweaty, out of breath face, but Izuku wasn't going to complain about the condition his miracles came in.

He'd snatched Mitsuki's wrist at the last second, before lethal contact with Izuku's neck was made, and pushed her up against the door, heavily leaning into her to keep her still. Izuku barely contained the relieved sob that threatened to escape him.

"Masaru, what the _fuc_—"

"Boys, you made it! Great! Kira is out back waiting for you to help set up. Blue hair. Can't miss her," he said hastily, a bit out of breath, jerking his head towards the back of the house, voice becoming strained with Mitsuki beginning to give him a real run for his money as she struggled against his hold.

Kacchan stepped in first and Izuku cautiously followed, never taking his eye off Mitsuki in case she managed to spring free, since she was hell-bent on accomplishing that task currently. She thrashed and cursed him under her breath, but Masaru didn't budge. Just doubled down his lock on her wrists, continuing to smile at the boys through the strain, taming the beast and still being ever the most gracious host.

"We're so happy you two are here," he said loud enough to try and drown out the worst of Mitsuki's snarling rant as they carefully continued past them. "_Right_, honey?"

Mitsuki gave one final last ditch effort to break free to which Masaru responded with a very unimpressed look and held her fast once more. She growled and let out a petulant huff when her attempts still proved unfruitful before resigning herself to being pinned to the front door, face red, chest heaving, eyes _livid_.

She glared up at him. He glared right back. The silent exchange was terrifying and Izuku had to commend Masaru on his bravery. Mitsuki's glower could absolutely boil flesh and here he was taking the full brunt of it without so much as a flinch.

"_Right_?" He prompted again, firmer, and Mitsuki's frown deepened further before she whipped her dangerous gaze to Izuku. She still gave no answer and Izuku's stomach dropped when her upper lip began to curl in a silent sneer.

The good news was that she was contained and being fended off at the moment. The bad news? It wouldn't last forever. Izuku chanced taking his eyes off of her for a moment to look at Masaru. He gave him a single nod and flicked his eyes quickly towards the exit. A comrade in arms ordering them to retreat.

Kacchan grabbed his arm and started towards the next room, apparently not having to be told twice they were free to get the hell out of there. Izuku went willingly, pointedly ignoring any further eye contact with Mitsuki. But her uncharacteristic silence still sent a chill down his spine and the feeling of those dangerous eyes burning into the back of his head made him feel anything but victorious about their escape. Because they'd made it through the door, sure, but were now also deep behind enemy lines and the day was far from over.

Once they made it through the threshold into the next room Izuku let out the breath he hadn't known he'd been holding on a very shaky exhale. A small sense of relief working to fend off the overwhelming sense of panic for the first time since the front door had swung open. Masaru really had pulled through in a major way.

"I think I love your dad," he said matter-of-factly as Kacchan continued to drag him through the rest of the house.

Kacchan side eyed him, "Don't be fucking gross."

"He saved my life," Izuku insisted.

"He didn't save shit," Kacchan responds curtly, pausing briefly to snatch the box of chocolates out of Izuku's hands. It was completely bent out of shape and singed where he'd unconsciously been digging his fingers into it the flimsy cardboard and letting off small sparks.

"He just bought you enough time to live in fear a little longer. He won't always be there to protect you, trust me. If I know my mom, which unfortunately, I do, she's not done with you. Not even close." He drops his mangled flowers next to the now leaking chocolates on the dining room table and it made for a rather sad picture.

_So much for gifts of appeasement. _

Kacchan drags him to the sliding glass door that leads into the back yard and stops short before opening it, adding in as almost an afterthought: "She wasn't giving up just then. Just picking her battles and biding her time for another opportunity to present itself to corner you. _Alone_."

Izuku gulped.

Kacchan reached for the door handle and Izuku pulls him to a stop again.

"We need a plan."

"Wha—"

"For how to pull off being each other in front of the people who literally raised us?" Izuku could feel his muttering starting up, "Better yet, why don't we just try to tell them? Maybe if we write it out this time or something? Then we aren't _technically_—"

"I'm gonna stop you right there. Wasn't going to tell you this because you freak out over _everything_," he let out a longsuffering sigh, stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked everywhere but Izuku before continuing, "But I _may_ have passed out again studying with half-and-half," he grumbled out in a tired voice.

Izuku blinked and stared at him for a long moment before what he said actually sunk in.

"_What_?!" He half screeched.

"See this is why I wasn't going to say shit," he says bluntly, not even raising his voice in return, rolling his eyes and reaching for the handle again. Izuku blocked his path.

"Then why are you bringing it up now? When—_how_? How did—"

"Because you want to try and tell people and I'm here to tell _you_ that's a bad idea. I didn't want to fall behind while we were out of class so I agreed when he asked me to join him, but then the bastard started making jokes about _me_," he says gesturing to Izuku from (now blonde) head to toe, "Which, fuck the both of you by the way, that seemed really second nature for him with you," he added sounding truly insulted, "And I started to tell him about himself, slipping up and only _insinuating_ I wasn't exactly who I was supposed to be and I blacked out."

Izuku blanched.

"And I was out for like four hours that time, so apparently the affects lasts longer and the pain gets _worse_. And I don't know if it's a 'three strikes you're out' kind of thing or what, but I don't intend to find out, so just keep your shitty ideas to yourself, got it?" He made a move to leave again and Izuku blocked one more time. Kacchan didn't turn to face him, just kept his hand tightly gripped on the handle and pointedly looked out the glass in front of him.

Izuku's voice was low and searching, just trying to understand, as he moved in a bit closer. "Kacchan, why wouldn't you tell me about this? We're supposed to be working together and all you keep doing is pushing me away and leaving me out of things," he reaches out towards him gently when Kacchan just continued to stare out into the yard. "Just—"

"Does that guy look familiar to you?"

Izuku pulled back his hand and frowned, "What? Who—are you even listening to me?" he sputter indignantly.

"Him. By the fence. I've seen him before."

"You're unbelievable," Izuku huffs angrily, thoroughly peeved, but he looks out anyway to see…absolutely nothing.

"Kacchan, there's no one there."

Kacchan finally turns to face Izuku, but only to look at him like he was the biggest idiot on the planet.

"What the fuck do you mean there's no one there? He's _right there_, Deku. Tall. Dark hair. _Staring at us_." He points on the glass leaving smudges where his finger repeatedly jabs at it to get his point across.

"Are you joking right now? I'm trying to have a conversation with you and you keep deflecting," Izuku says heatedly.

Kacchan glares at him. "No one's deflecting anything, stupid Deku. I already told you why I didn't tell you: you never _shut up_ about things. All I'm asking is if you've ever seen the weirdo over there who—wait where'd he go?" Kacchan had faced outside again and was furiously looking around to find someone Izuku wasn't even sure existed.

Izuku looks out and sees the space next to the fence just as empty as it had been at his first glance. "Ok…," he said gently, "Did that second black out maybe mess with your head, or…?"

"Fuck you! He was _right_—!" He runs his hands through his hair before taking a deep centering breath. "You know what? Forget it. You're obviously just blind and the extra isn't even important anyway," he waves the whole thing off.

"Kaccan, wha—"

Kacchan cuts in and continues with their earlier conversation like nothing had just happened. "So, you want a plan, right? Here's the plan. One: don't speak unless spoken to. Two: don't be a bitch, she can literally smell fear, so do _not_ let your guard down around her," he advises quickly, ticking off fingers with each new rule.

Izuku's mind was reeling trying to keep up with what was going on. He looked outside again to make sure he wasn't the one going crazy, but there was still no man in sight.

_What is happeni—_

"Three: maybe, I don't know, try not to scream about sex dreams where everyone can hear," he added.

And then Izuku was forgetting about the mystery man too, his attention immediately falling back on Kacchan as he scoffed, "Oh, you'd like that wouldn't you? Shut me up about it so you can avoid it some more."

Kacchan gave him a withering glare, but pointedly ignored everything he'd just said. "_Four_: don't draw any negative attention to yourself. She's already pissed, don't make her hate you even more. That good enough for you?"

"No," Izuku said, crossing his arms. "What about my mom? Don't you need _her_ plan?"

Kacchan sighs heavily, "What about her, Deku? She's sunshine incarnate, she doesn't _need_ a plan. I just need to be the perfect momma's boy and try not to horrify her with my degenerate ways, right? Your guys' relationship isn't that complicated. I can handle her."

Before Izuku can argue there's a loud rapping on the glass next to them that causes them both to jump.

A girl, maybe a few years older than them, with sky blue space buns and elfish features stood on the other side of the glass smiling at them and waving frantically for them to come out and join her. Kacchan took the opportunity to end their conversation gladly and walked back out into the blistering heat, leaving Izuku no choice but to follow his lead.

About a dozen or so wait staff were scrambling around setting up the backyard to meet Mitsuki's, no doubt, impossibly high standards. Each person looking like they'd rather die than be working out in ninety degree heat in slacks, a button down shirt, and a vest for a blonde sociopath with outrageous demands.

All except for the odd girl beckoning them over. She seemed overly animated and concerningly chipper despite the circumstances. All but jumping up and down as she bounced on her toes waiting for them to meet her on the other side of the porch.

"…Kira, right?" Izuku asked.

"That's me!" she replies in an airy falsetto followed by a tinkling laugh, "And you must be Bakugou and Midoriya, correct?" Her eyes and hair were the same color as the cloudless sky above them and that along with her dainty features gave off a very nature fairy vibe to Izuku.

"Yeah, yeah," Kacchan cuts off the pleasantries, "So, what the hell do you need us to do? No offense, but the pitch of your voice is already kind of making me want to stab myself in the ear, so if we could just hurry this along?"

Izuku smacks him on the arm with incredibly disapproving glower.

Kira just laughs again. "Someone's grumpy!"

"Yeah, well we can't all shit rainbows like yo—" Izuku cuts him off with another, _harder_, punch to the arm.

A strained smile spreads across his face. "I'm so sorry, he's—"

"No, no," she chuckles, "It's fine. He's almost right. Although, it's less rainbows, more _sparkles_," she says with jazz hands before disappearing in a flash of glitter as the end of her exaggerated sentence still hung in the air.

Izuku gasps while Kacchan curses, both of them taking a step back on instinct to prepare for anything a hidden figure could possibly do.

"Pretty cool, huh?" she says from behind them and they both jump again, still managing to be caught off guard.

"You can teleport!" Izuku says in awe.

"Kind of a nifty trick for the manager of an event planning team, don't yah think? I'm always needed and I'm always available!" She beams. "I wanted to be a hero, but I apparently the sparkles take away the stealth my Quirk could be used for, so." She shrugged good naturedly, but she still seems a little hurt about it.

Kacchan cuts in before Izuku can. "Please for the love of God just tell me what my assignments are before he starts geeking out over your Quirk. I'm literally begging."

Izuku ignores him, but Kira tilts her head to the side curiously eyeing Kacchan, "I thought Mrs. Bakugou said her son was the surly one, but you seem to be the one with the attitude problem, little green man."

Both boys stiffen as she fishes around for something. Both suddenly remembering this charade wasn't only for their parents, they had a whole guest list of people who knew the Bakugous and, more than likely, also knew their son. They needed to get their act together, and quickly.

"Whatever. Everyone has off days, right?" she says with a shrug and a blinding smile, handing them both a list of jobs that need to be done before the party starts, "Have at it boys! If you need me just holler, I have excellent hearing," she says with a wink and an inclination of her head to show off her pointed ears, before vanishing in her glitter storm, leaving them to their work. And what back breaking work it was.

Setting up for this party was hellacious in many ways.

Kira's staff was relentless. Everything had to be perfect. _Place this here…drag this there…no no no fold the napkin this way, stupid_! It was exhausting. Nothing was ever finished. Each time one task got done he would be called over to complete another.

Then there was Mitsuki. Every time Izuku felt a chill run down his spine while he was standing in the midday sun, he only had to look up and find the source of his discomfort's murderous gaze locked on him from different windows in the house. They'd make eye contact for a few seconds before she'd narrow hers and disappear into the shadows like some creature of the night.

Come to find out that'd been tracking his movements to wait until he broke off from the pack for some reason or another.

Each time he stopped for a break she'd be there, but so would Masaru. He'd show up to ask about menial things. School, training, friends. And Izuku found it odd at first, until he realized Mitsuki was waiting to pounce, noticing her hovering just a few feet away, around a corner fuming as Masaru cut in to chat him up.

Masaru had followed his line of sight and pretended to just now notice her then too, shooting her a cocky smile and wave, to which she responded by flipping him the bird and stalking away. Masaru just laughed, patting Izuku's hair, before leaving without another word. And Izuku would fondly watched him go, his knight in shining armor, vowing he'd die for that man given the chance.

Everything else went on without a hitch, though. Groups of people were working seamlessly together and the backyard was turning into a whole new venue right before Izuku's eyes. Kira was never in one place for long, her blinding disappearing act lighting up all over the yard as she hopped around, helping out in any way she could.

Every now and then, when they weren't in the same space and bickering back and forth, he'd catch sight of Kacchan and he'd be staring off at nothing, eyes following something that Izuku couldn't see and each time Izuku grew more concerned, thinking about the imaginary man Kacchan insisted on seeing earlier.

_What if this is messing with us? Is this Quirk dangerous? How much do we really know about what's being done to our minds?_

But Izuku never questioned Kacchan further on his new affinity to see the unknown. A lot was already going down today and there was no need to rile him up any more than he already always was. So he just continued to work diligently until the announcement was made that they were finished.

When everything was said and done it had been seven hours since they'd arrived.

Seven hours they'd slaved to set up Mistuki's vision of '_love under the stars_' or something ridiculous like that, Izuku can't really remember. Being used for grunt work for hours on end tends to blur everything together, that and maybe dehydration.

Because it was so _hot_, and Izuku was _sweating_.

Why Mitsuki decided this was a black tie event in the middle of summer and why Masaru had insisted they show up party ready were two things that were beyond Izuku.

He and Kacchan had both forgone their suit jackets and dress shirts less than a half hour into things, choosing to work in their thin undershirts until the party actually started.

And Izuku was immediately grateful for the distraction of constant work because Kacchan's body left without anything to do, kept finding its gaze drawn back to the muscles bunching and pulling under familiar freckled skin. Izuku didn't think he'd ever have to force himself to not salavate over his own arms, but there's a first time for everything he guessed.

He's almost positive he noticed Kacchan struggling with the same ogling issue. Only because Izuku knew if he were in his own body the temptation to see Kacchan halfway shirtless with a sweaty tank sticking to his very defined chest and abdomen would be almost impossible to resist. So he also knew the high blush dusting Kacchan's cheeks wasn't just from the day's heat; but neither of them brought that up either. Avoidance seemed to be the word of the day and it was driving Izuku to madness.

He was still very much curious as to where Kacchan actually _was_ with his feelings for him, but if the breakdown at the front door earlier was any indication, Kacchan was extremely far off from being anywhere near sharing that part of himself with Izuku. He sighed to think about just _how far_ off. Were they ever going to have an actual conversation about it or was Kacchan going to constantly fight to ignore it?

_No, he'd have to talk to him eventually. It was literally one of the stipulations to getting back to normal…at least that's what Mic had said. Getting to know and respect one another? That included back and forth, talking, communication. _

Which, with Kacchan, is, admittedly, like pulling teeth, but Izuku could be patient. He's waited this long, what's a little while longer?

Kira broke him out of his overthinking while working to get everyone's attention. "Ok, guys! We're done with set up, great job!" She clapped and smiled cheerfully and her crew just stared at her blankly, eyes devoid of any emotion other than exhaustion, hair sticking to their foreheads as they fought to continue standing.

"Guests start arriving in forty-five, so take a break and we'll re-group in thirty!" They broke away before she was even done talking, a hoard of zombies finding small strips of shade around the edges of the yard to crash in until called upon to rise again by their undead queen.

Kira scratched her head and smiles embarrassed when she turns toward Izuku. "We're all at University. Everyone's spread pretty thin right now, you know?"

Izuku chuckled lightly. "They still did an awesome job! Everything's going to look amazing once the sun starts to set," he encouraged.

"Aw thanks, sweetie! You know, your mom is totally wrong about you. You're a _dream_. Your boy toy on the other hand?" She thumbs over her shoulder at Kacchan, deadpan, "Is the worst."

Izukus flushes, "B-boy toy? Who, Ka-Midoriya? N-no, um—"

"Relax. You've been gawking at each other all day there's no need to deny it," she says with a breezy wink. "You two are cute couple in a weird 'we-argue-non-stop-and-insult-each-other-constantly-but-that's-love-look-it-up' kind of way."

"We are not a couple," Izuku wheezes, frantically trying to wrap up the conversation as Kacchan begins to make his way closer.

"No?"

"_No_."

She narrows her eyes before looking between the two of them once more and shrugs with a face that says she doesn't believe it for a second. "Whatever you say chief!" she gives a sassy salute then easily reverts back to manager mode once Kacchan in within earshot, "You two are free to go. Thanks for helping out!"

"Not like we had a fuckin' choice," Kacchan mumbled low enough that Kira couldn't hear. Izuku shot him a warning look which he promptly blew off by ignoring it altogether and picking up his previously discarded clothing. "It's hot as balls. I'm going inside. No one bother me or—"

"Izuku!" An achingly familiar voice rang through the air.

Izuku looked up on instinct, seeing his mom made up in a pretty pink dress, bustling down the porch steps to no doubt smother her son in affection.

Kacchan had his back to her, and he continued to face away as he closed his eyes and let out a very violent exhale through his nose.

His plans to relax until the party over before they even started.

"Kacch—" Izuku started, but Kacchan threw up a hand to silence him. The muscles of his jaw were ticking in irritation, his other fist clinching and unclinching in an attempt to calm down until just before Inko was in pouncing distance. Right as she reached him he turned around with a bright smile and wide open arms.

"Mom!"

Kacchan flawlessly scooped Inko up and twirled her around a few times as they giggled all over each other before coming to a dizzying stop. Inko smooshed his cheeks together and beamed. "My baby, oh, I missed you so much!"

Kacchan tried to smile through the iron grip she had on his face and it ended up making his chubby cheeks look that much more _biteable_.

_Haha, whoa. That was a Kacchan word, not mine. Pull it together body, now is not the time._

"I missed you, too," he responded. And his tone was so endearing, his eyes so earnest with the threat of unshed tears sticking to his eyelashes. Izuku was legitimately floored at the act Kacchan was perfecting so seamlessly. Just what the hell was going on here?

Inko gave him a watery smile before fully looking him over.

"Goodness Izuku, you're a mess! Let's get you ready before fancy fashion people see you looking like this!" She fretted over him all the way to the door and Kacchan let her, smiling sheepishly and acting embarrassed at her attempts to remove dirt from his face with a licked thumb.

Izuku watched them leave, enraptured. Just before her final shove into the house Kacchan whole face changed as he gave Izuku a dark smile that set his blood on fire. And then they were gone, leaving Izuku to wonder how he was supposed to live up to that performance with Kacchan's parents…

"Wow," Kira, who he'd totally forgotten about, said beside him, "How does it feel to date all those different personalities? Like who was that just now?"

_Honey, you don't even know the half of it._

"I told you, we aren't—"

"Yes, yes," she rolled her eyes, "You _aren't_ dating ok, whatever. I'm gonna go power nap. See ya later, lover boy!"

Izuku tried to fight the blush creeping up his cheeks as he found his own clothes and made his way into the house.

It was an instant shift in atmosphere. Where outside had be bright, and hot, and abuzz with energy, inside was dimly lit, and cold, and eerily quiet. Izuku was immediately on edge as he creeped through the house towards Kacchan's room to find a new undershirt. The way his Quirk was set up, there was no way Izuku could continue with the tank he had on currently. New underwear may be called for too…

He was about to walk in front of the kitchen's entryway when he heard _her_ voice, and every hair on his body stood on end.

"I don't see why I couldn't just _talk_ to him. He's my son too, Masaru."

"We both know you're too riled up to just _talk_ to him," Masaru answered in a tone of voice that suggested they'd had similar conversations on many separate occasions, "You were walking around with a knife when you called and left him those last few messages the other day. We don't need that energy around guests today, Mitsuki."

"It's my emotional support object! But I swear I was only going to talk with him." But even without seeing her Izuku could hear the lilt in her voice at the end of the sentence. Everyone knew that was a lie.

But Masaru humored her anyway. "Oh? Is that why you bound my hands just before the boys showed up? So I wouldn't interrupt your _talk_?"

Izuku's eyebrows rose in surprise. What was this? He chanced a peek around the corner just in time to see Mitsuki's expression falter slightly.

"We agreed. _I_ would be the one to get the door," he continued heatedly, encroaching on her space, slowly backing her up against a counter.

Mitsuki attempted to school her face by switching to a thoughtful expression. "Really? Hmm I don't recall," she answered flippantly, feigning innocence as she fisted his tie, bringing them face to face, and she nosed under his jaw slyly.

Masaru looked surprised for half a second before he narrowed his eyes distrustfully, "We aren't doing this again."

"What? Having fun?" she pouts with a kiss under his ear.

He catches the sneaky hand traveling down his body and towers over her menacingly. "Tying me up and _distracting_ me, then waiting 'til my pants were _literally_ down so you could run to the door," he hissed at a volume that suggested he'd tried for a whisper but Izuku had heard it all _quite_ clearly. "That was low, even for you."

To Izuku's horror Masaru's disheveled state earlier was beginning to make much more sense. He had thought it was just from racing Mitsuki to the door. But then his shirt _had_ been a bit wrinkled and some buttons had missed towards the bottom…belt missing, flushed down to his chest—

"Baby, I'm hurt," she said with another fake pout before leaning in to purr seductively, "Because you of all people know I can go _so much_ _lower_."

Mitsuki gave him a cheeky sneer, the innocent act dropped just as quickly as it was taken up. She moved a shapely leg, exposed by a deep split in her dress, up and between Masaru's to drive her point home. Masaru continued to frown at her, but the blush creeping up over his ears was pretty telling.

_Oh_.

Izuku's cheeks heated instantaneously seeing Kacchan's parents partake in some horrifying type of foreplay. He quickly plastered himself to the wall outside of the kitchen again and prayed this was as far as this game of chicken would go. He very much wanted to not be hearing this conversation. But he was afraid if he moved now he'd chance being heard or even worse _seen_, so he stayed put despite every nerve telling him to high tail it out of there.

Some scuffling started up in the other room and Izuku's stomach dropped.

_Oh, please, no._

"_No_! We are not playing this game today woman!" Masaru exclaims loud enough to make Izuku jump, but _thank God_ his virgin ears were spared for another day.

Mitsuki huffed, "You're no fun."

"Guests are about to arrive and you've got me like _this_?" Izuku couldn't see them anymore, but he's sure he could imagine the predicament Masaru was currently in. "I'm going to finish getting ready. Do _not_ burn this house down while I'm gone, Mitsuki, please."

"Ok, _fine_!" She finally relented in exasperation.

Masaru let out a noncommittal sound of approval, then rushed past Izuku without noticing him, since it seemed he was making a beeline for the restroom. Mitsuki cackled as he rushed off, "You sure you don't want any help with that, hon?"

Masaru threw his arm back and flipped her off like they'd been doing all day. An awkward limp to his stride as he tried to adjust himself in his pants with his other hand, grumbling all the way about evil temptresses and chastising himself for being weak to her seductions.

Mitsuki continued to laugh, but Izuku could hear the click of her heels retreating in the opposite direction as they both left the kitchen. He let out a quiet sigh of relief that the scarring scene was blessedly over and that Mitsuki was headed towards the other end of the house. He waited a few more moments, just to be safe, then made a mad dash for the stairs.

A flash of light had Kira materializing out of nowhere. And he was not proud of the undignified screech he let out at her arrival.

"Bakugou! There you are!"

And just like that his location had been compromised. The abrupt stop of heels clicking away might as well have been the timer switching to zero right before a bomb detonates, both signified the end of life.

Kira kept talking, and damn was she _loud_! Izuku frantically started shushing her, but she wouldn't _shut up_.

"I forgot to tell you we'll still need your to help lighting all the candles. There's a metric ton of them oh my God, you wouldn't believe—"

Izuku smacked a hand over her mouth and dragged her back to the wall he'd been hiding behind earlier like she was some kind of hostage. She was rightfully shocked, frozen in his hold and they were both breathing heavily.

Izuku couldn't tell if it was just eerily quiet or if his blood was just rushing in his ears loud enough that he couldn't hear anything else. His eyes were screwed shut as he tried to locate Mitsuki's whereabouts within the house.

_Was she far enough away maybe she didn't hear her? No. I screamed before she yelled his name. She heard. Why can't I hear the heels? Did she take them off? That sneaky bi—_

"Hello kids," a cheery voice said beside them and Izuku's gut twisted violently as he snapped his eyes open to see Mitsuki poking her head around the corner.

Kira extracted herself from his death grip quickly and Izuku let her go, no longer wanting anything to do with the traitor, "U-um hello Mrs. Bakugou! I was just telling him we still needed him for some candle lighting out back, so—"

"If you don't mind just asking Midoriya to help you finish up? I need to have a word with my son," she said with a strained smile that even Kira could read as threatening since she was backing away slowly with her hands unconsciously up in peace.

"Y-yeah, no problem I'll just go find him! Later, Bakugou!" And then she made herself scarce in a flash by vanishing into thin air.

Izuku watched bitterly as the last of her sparkles floated to the ground. Let it be known that he was no longer a fan of Kira's.

"Katsuki," Mitsuki's tone was even but Izuku still flinched, "Come with me." She started back through the kitchen without waiting for him to reply. Izuku looked back to see the door to outside _right there_, maybe if he made a break for it he could make it before she—

"Katsuki. _Now_," she demanded from further off in the house, voice echoing through the empty halls loud and commanding, zero room for argument. Izuku let out a small whimper and followed as he was told.

Each step up the stairs felt like a step closer to his execution. Izuku imagined this is what people who were headed to the gallows felt like. Out of options, out of time, hopeless, _terrified_. His legs were actually shaking and a cold sweat broke out across his hairline as Mitsuki opened a door at the end of a long hallway and gestured for him to head in first. Izuku was not fond of the idea of having his back to her, but the unamused face she gave him at his pause forced his feet to move.

Once inside he realized it was the master bedroom. Mitsuki shut the door behind them and the click was like a gunshot with the way it deafened Izuku while simultaneously making him want to crumple to his knees.

"God, I want to kick your little disrespectful ass so _bad_," she growled threateningly from her less than ideal spot behind him.

Kacchan's body seemed to be tensing automatically, ready for her to begin lashing out verbal and physical assaults alike. He felt her presence approaching, heard her small feet padding against the hardwood and he braced himself for impact.

He didn't know how to react when Mitsuki only bodily bumped his shoulder with her own and passed him to go stand in front of the large bay windows on the other side of the room. She dropped both her hands down on the window sill, and sighed heavily while her hold on the wood grew tighter. She seemed to calling on a higher power for strength. Whether it was to obliterate Izuku with or to control herself was still concerningly unclear.

She rose stiffly a minute or two later and clasped her hands at the small of her back. It appeared she deemed that a safe spot for them for the time being.

"But I can smell the teenage angst rolling off of you, and if you think you're petty adolescent problems give you the right to treat me the way you have been recently you've got another thing coming," she said calmly.

"So, we're going to have a little _chat_ to set things straight, instead. Come here," she said just above a whisper, and it was stern but not nearly as angry as he was expecting.

Even so, Izuku was afraid. Just like with Katsuki, having Mitsuki speak in gentle tones had the opposite affect it was supposed to. The shades were halfway drawn so the orange of the currently setting sun were cutting across her stark profile in broken increments, shadows covering her face intermittently.

The room felt hot and cold at the same time, bright with the last of the day's rays and dark with the foreboding aura Mitsuki was radiating. The whole scene was feeling very Godfather-esque and Izuku shuddered, because he knows how that movie ends.

He cautiously moved to stand by her side, glancing over at her profile momentarily before following her gaze down to the backyard. Nothing spectacular was happening. Just the crew beginning to stir again.

Twilight dimming the horizon. Mitsuki was doing some exaggerated inhales and exhales still and it was really beginning to creep Izuku out.

He stayed quiet and watched the sky fade into the first few shades of magenta as he waited, sweat dripping down his back with the anticipation of what Mitsuki was going to do. She was already off script since he wasn't currently face down on the floor blocking his head from dangerous blows. There was no precedent with which to compare this foreign behavior, so Izuku was lost.

_Ok, ok. Just be Kacchan. It's not that hard, what would he do? Maybe I should start? No. Kacchan said to only speak when spoken to, he knows better than to start anything with her. But how long do I wait? Is she waiting on me to say something? Sorry? He said not to let my guard down. Does Kacchan even apologiz—_

"Do you understand why you aren't in a coma right now?" She started plainly. "Why I'm graciously allowing you the luxury of continuing to breathe without the help of machines?" Mitsuki asked as if she were inquiring about the weather, conversationally, like this was a question normal people just _asked_, like Izuku should answer just as nonchalantly.

But Izuku does not answer, not sure how to answer, because _what the hell_. Thankfully it seemed it was a rhetorical question anyway, because Mitsuki continued on without his response.

"It's because your father asked me to," she stated bluntly, "I didn't want this party, but he did. He wanted a special day for the two of us. Which apparently cannot be carried out properly if I end up in jail for murder, so I'm indulging him. Do you know why?" She lifts an eyebrow and side eyes him before answering her own question again, "Because he indulges me every other day of the year."

Mitsuki thinks for a moment before adding, "Well, you mostly have your father to thank, but also partially the breathing exercises my therapists insists I use," she rolls her eyes, "It's stupid, but five-months-ago-Mitsuki would've skinned you alive before you even _thought_ about ringing that doorbell, so I suppose they do seem to work." The sharp smile that she tried to fight down at the idea did nothing to calm Izuku's nerves.

He tries not to think about that possible outcome too hard and makes a mental note to add Mitsuki's therapist to his list of unsung heroes.

He takes a deep breath and goes back to her original statement. "Indulge?" Izuku asks in a tone of voice that is a million times softer than anything Kacchan would ever use, especially in the presence of his mother, but Izuku was curious and desperately wanted to steer the conversation away from potential maiming, so he broke character momentarily.

Mitsuki was thrown, it was obvious in the way her burning eyes lanced through him distrustfully. That was the first time he'd spoken directly to her all day and she looked just as surprised as Izuku was at his choice for his first response.

"Yes…," Mitsuki narrowed her eyes, red irises dancing as she scanned his face for a tell at what kind of game he was trying to play, "Relationships are about give and take. _Compromise_." She pauses momentarily to look down again at the yard and Izuku looks back as well.

Kacchan was down there, now fully clothed. Izuku's heart swelled with pride at seeing how his body now filled out the hand-me-down suit that used to dwarf him. His heart also swelled with something else as he heard the muffled laugh of Kacchan as he tried to fend off Inko's fussing over his tie, that bright smile tugging at his insides harshly. Kacchan's body seemed to be at war with itself. Seeing those freckled cheeks and guileless eyes seemed to making Kacchan's body want to swoon as well as smash his face in, draw him in tight _and_ blast him away.

_Why is he fighting these feeling so hard?_

He didn't realize he'd been thoroughly caught up in the enigma of a human being in front of him until Mitsuki cleared her throat and he looked up to find her watching him watching Kacchan. He cleared his throat as well and looked away sharply.

Mitsuki hummed curiously before continuing, "People like us tend to take more than we give. Or that's what people who can't see past our brash exterior would have you believe. But in reality we give just as much as we take, just not in the conventional ways most people are used to. Instead of grand displays of love and affection, we're…," she waves her hands, searching for the right words. "Fiercely protective? Unwavering in our support? Oh, I don't know, Katsuki. We're still driven to do the best for the people we care about by the same things as everyone else, we just express it in unusual ways. It's not a bad thing, our love language is just—different. I barely get it. But people like Masaru do, and love us despite it."

Izuku was not prepared for the turn this encounter had taken. This was a very roundabout way of getting to understand more of Kacchan's emotional state, but he'd take what he could get at this point.

She moved away from the window and sauntered over to the chair in front of her vanity, put her hands on the back of it and looked at him expectantly. "Sit," she ordered gesturing with a jerk of her chin to the seat.

They locked eyes the entire time Izuku made his way over, only breaking when he sat down, just for the same red hues to clash in the mirror as the stared one another down through the glass.

"What do you see?"

Izuku, personally, thinks this is a very interesting starting point, but he knows Kacchan would not feel the same. So he rolls his eyes and crosses his arms, breaking eye contact to glare at the ground, "This is so stupid. If you have something to say just spit it out alrea—"

A smack upside the head has his eyes jumping back to the mirror to find Mitsuki's again and Kacchan's body snarls on instinct.

"My patience with you is already _incredibly_ thin. It would be wise of you not to push me," she hisses, "_Answer_ the _question_."

Izuku glares at her for a few seconds longer for acting's sake, because if he weren't parading around as her son he'd be ready to beg for her forgiveness. But after a few beats he turned his gaze over to the boy staring back at him.

_What do I see? What does Kacchan see when he looks in the mirror?_

"I don't know," he answered truthfully. And Mitsuki looked ready to argue until she saw the true uncertainty in his eyes and her face softened ever so slightly.

"I read your speech, Katsuki," she said, looking at him seriously.

Izuku didn't know how to respond because he had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. At the lack of an answer she fished out a piece of paper with Kacchan's neat handwriting from one of the drawers in front of them. She handed it to him gently. It wasn't long, but it might have been if half of it hadn't been scratched out. It was titled 'Making Hard to Love Look Easy'.

"I found it in your desk when you weren't answering my calls and I was trying to see if I could find something to tell me what was going on with you," she gives him an unimpressed look at his antics that Izuku doesn't see because he's still lost in the handful of soft paragraphs about love and relationships he's being made to believe were written by _Kacchan's_ hand.

When he still doesn't respond Mitsuki continues again, "I know I forced you to write it for tonight, but you seemed to really take the assignment to heart…and I actually think it's perfect. I hope you didn't decide to write something different. Your father would really enjoy that."

_Whoa whoa wait. I'm reading this?! Tonight?! In front of others?! _Kacchan_ was going to do this?!_

A soft hand found his hair and ruffled it. "And for the record," she points to the page in his hand, "We aren't hard to love. Loving us just isn't for the weak of heart. People may not believe it but your father's just as bullheaded as me, and maybe even a bit more insane," she chuckles, "But he _gets_ me and doesn't ask me to change myself to make others comfortable. His love has always been unconditional. That's why Masaru's the only one I've ever really been able to connect with. And I'm beginning to think that may be the case for you," she pauses, a tender smile on her lips, "With Izuku."

Izuku's head finally snapped up from the script in front of him to gawk at Mitsuki. It took him a second to remember he was supposed to be reacting accordingly and that wanting to break down and cry was _not_ the correct reaction.

_Who the hell was this person being so docile and motherly and what had they done with Mitsuki? And what is she saying?!_

"What?" He draws his brows together and goes on the defensive like Kacchan always does when confronted with feelings, and it wasn't hard. His body was already prepared to flee at the first spike in his heart rate at hearing Izuku's name coming from his mother's mouth in that soft, understanding tone. This is obviously the type of conversation Kacchan avoids like the plague, not that Izuku needed to switch bodies with him to know that.

He curled his upper lip and said what he'd heard from Kacchan for years upon years, "Who the _fuck_ would want that nerd?" It burned all the way out, but it had to be said.

Mitsuki sucks her teeth, "I'm not blind, Katsuki. I see the way you two have been looking at each other. I was there on the porch when you two were inches apart. He's always made you crazy and I never for the life of me could understand why. Until today."

"I don't know what the hell you're going on about," he snarled. And he didn't. Where the hell was Mitsuki getting this from? Sure Kacchan had a few sex dreams about Izuku, but a relationship? Love? Izuku refused to get his hopes up like that. Entertaining those thoughts only lead to heartbreak, he's been down this road with him many times before.

Mitsuki just sighed, "I know you think finding someone like Masaru for you is some impossible feat. But I'm just trying to tell you, you've got someone who fits the bill so much closer than you realize. Don't bite my head off, damn."

Izuku goes back to looking at the note in his hand, eyebrows furrowed.

Mitsuki put her hands on his shoulders and squeezed, "I know your dad is usually the one you go to for emotional things, but I hope I made it clear that I'm here to talk to as well." Izuku considers her reflection for a moment then gave a single tentative nod.

"Good. I'm still pissed as all Hell at you, but you're still my kid, and I love you, so I hope this helps with whatever you're going through," she kissed his temple before leaning further in to whisper in his ear.

"But if you think I'm not going to rip you a new one if you fuck up this party just because we had a little heart to heart, you've got another thing coming. You are _notorious_ for causing scenes at these types of events and I'm here to tell you if you so much as speak out of turn tonight it'll be your ass. You are still on _very_ thin ice, so tread lightly."

Her nails bit into his skin leaving little crescent moons across his still bare shoulders, just in case her point wasn't already crystal clear enough, before patting him amicably with a wide cheshire smile, all sympathies ending in that moment.

_Ah, there she is. And the overwhelming sense of dread is back as well, wonderful._

"Now, get the hell out of my room," she waves him off as she disappears into the adjoining bathroom.

Izuku wasted no time flinging himself out the door, rushing to the other end of the hall, and throwing himself into Kacchan's childhood room. He leans all his weight on the door before sliding to the ground and marvels at what just happened.

_I did it! One on one with Mitsuki and I'm still alive! Not that I was actually fighting for my life or anything like I definitely thought I would be, but a win is a win! _

Izuku could seriously cry. In an interesting turn of events he'd managed to not only get on Mitsuki's good side (maybe?) but may have also possibly discovered why Kacchan is so against letting his walls down.

_He thinks he's hard to love…_

Izuku smoothed out the paper he'd been given and looked it over like he was seeing the Holy Grail in the flesh. It was _feelings_! _Kacchan's_ feelings written out and actually comprehensible. A blessed glimpse inside that maze of a brain of his.

Some inkling of understanding of how his mind works…and here Izuku was having to share it with others in less than a few hours.

Izuku tightened his grip on the page and watched the paper crinkle, threatening to rip. He wanted to hoard this treasure for himself, take it and lock it away for no one else to see, not read it out loud to a bunch of strangers who wouldn't even _appreciate_ it!

Oh, God, he had to read it out loud.

Did Kacchan even remember writing this? Izuku can't imagine his reaction to having his private inner most emotions broadcasted will have a positive reaction. Sure he wrote them down for this speech, but Mitsuki even said she didn't know if he wrote another. This one has redactions and 'X's' all over it, who's to say his final product would be this personal? Maybe he could convince Mitsuki to only let him read it to Masaru personally.

_No, you've made it past her once today. Very low probability of that happening again without physical damage being done. Steer clear._

Or maybe he should just chance trying to out his true self regardless of Kacchan's warnings? Then he'd be free to be unconscious for the remainder of the party.

_There's an idea...Make it seem like an accident so Kacchan doesn't kill him after the fac—_

The door bumping him in the back as someone tried to barge in broke him out of his mumbling with a start.

"Nerd, open the fuck up. I told your mom I'd be back. I probably only have like a five minute window before she starts knocking down doors to suffocate me with _affection_ again, so hurry the hell up!" Kacchan demanded frantically.

Izuku jumped to his feet, haphazardly folded the speech, and shoved it deep into his pants pocket just before Kacchan barged in. Izuku tried to look nonchalant, like he wasn't just invading all of Kacchan's privacy, but Kacchan paid him almost no mind. He slammed the door shut behind him and became the new occupant of Izuku's previous spot on the floor.

He threw his head back against the door and covered his face with gnarled, scared hands, and let out a long, tired exhale.

Izuku quirked a brow, "I thought you had her handled?"

Kacchan peeked through the gaps in his fingers to narrow his eyes at Izuku. "She won't stop crying about how she was never able to give you a life like this," he gestured vaguely at their surroundings, "A two income household and a stable relationship to aspire to, or some shit, which is a fucking laugh by the way. Who the fuck looks at _my_ family and sees _stable_?"

Izuku's stomach twisted at his words. His mom always got like this at these types of things and he's kind of embarrassed Kacchan had to hear about it.

He turned away to begin shuffling through drawers to find spare underthings. "Yeah, she always wanted me to have more to look up to than I did. A solid relationship, a strong male role model—"

"And _that_!" Kacchan cut in, "I had to sit there and listen to her sob about not giving you a proper role model to look up to, 'like Masaru'," he mimicked her voice and scoffed.

"Like, is she serious? Like your shitty father leaving wasn't the best thing that could've happened to you. Like it didn't make you stronger and more compassionate and _fuck_—you didn't have half the shit I did growing up and you still turned out fuckin' _perfe_—" He caught himself when Izuku half looked over his shoulder with raised brows. He cleared his throat and tried again.

"I didn't like the way she kept referring to you like she failed you or that you could've turned out _better_ if you weren't raised by a single mom, that shit was stupid. And your _body_? Just deflated in on itself, I've never felt weaker inside of it and it seriously is pissing me off. You've busted your ass and proven yourself despite him leaving and despite all the assholes telling you what you couldn't do…," He paused and his face looked flushed as he continued, "Including me," he mumbled.

"Anyway, _neither_ of you give you enough credit, and I'm sick of her forcing me to listen to it because its bullshit." The last bit was mumbled so lowly Izuku thought he'd imagined it, but Kacchan's cheeks were stained pink and Izuku realized all that had _really_ just come out of Kacchan's mouth. There were compliments in there, defensive words, and was he hallucinating or was he trying to be encouraging?

Maybe sex isn't all there is to this. Maybe he did care.

_Maybe Mitsuki…was right?_

Her words from earlier stuck out clearly now: _"Instead of grand displays of love and affection, we're…Fiercely protective? Unwavering in our support?...We just express our feelings in unusual ways. It's not a bad thing, our love language is just—different."_

Izuku resolutely turned back to the drawers to hide his quickly heating cheeks. He cleared his throat and beat down the urge to start freaking out at the fact that _this might actually be happening_, because he's sure that wouldn't go over well, and instead offered his own tale of woe.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better. I had to deal with your mom's attempt at comfort? While simultaneously having my life threatened, so." He let out a forced laugh as he triumphantly held up a change of underwear.

"Holy shit, she got you alone?" Kacchan stood up and crossed the room in an instant to examine him. "You look fine. Did she not get a hit in? Did you run? How do you not have a single scratch on you?" He reached out to run his fingers over Izuku's arms in confusion, but looking up to interrogate him further he realized just how close they'd gotten and he drew his hands back like he'd been burned.

Izuku ignored the small spark down his spine at the brief moment of those calloused hands on his skin. "I'm fine. She just wanted to…um, talk…"

They both stood there, less than two feet apart, staring at each other in silence. Izuku shifted his weight awkwardly with his newly acquired attire in his arms, waiting for Kacchan to say something, or hopefully _leave_, so he could change without an audience and so he could be alone with his revelation. But he was just staring at him blankly and it was unnerving.

"Ok…well, I need to change so—"

"Talk about what?" he asked, eyebrows furrowed, mouth set in a firm line.

"Uh…nothing important—"

"Nothing important, but she chose to talk to you about it rather than kick your ass? Try again, Deku." He cocked his head to the side and inched closer.

"You really want to know?"

"No," he gave him a flat look, "I just enjoy wasting my breath on rhetorical questions."

"You don't have to be such an ass all the time, you know."

"Deku." It was clipped and the last wavering bit of his patience could be heard dying.

Izuku took a deep breath.

_Fine_.

"She thinks you've been avoiding her about things regarding your parent's anniversary because you're struggling with a relationship of your own that you deem similar to theirs," he says the whole thing in a rush and adds much softer, "Your relationship with…me."

There. He said it. Kacchan asked, and he told him, and now he's cinched his eyes closed and is waiting for his face to get caved in.

So, when a few beats go by with no reaction, he cracks an eye open to find Kacchan staring at him blankly again.

"Come again?" He says, and it's almost a growl.

Izuku stands up a bit straighter, not to be scared off by is icy tone, and attempts to rephrase. "She thinks you see _our_ relationship in _their_ relationship and that it's freaking you out. So she showed mercy today thinking you needed a confidant rather than an executioner, thank God."

Judging by the growing heat in Kacchan's eyes Izuku doesn't think he even heard the last part of his statement, only the relationship bit.

"And what do _you_ think, shitty Deku? That she's right?"

Izuku is beginning to get marginally pissed. Kacchan had _asked_, so he doesn't understand why he's being such a dick. But answered the question regardless. "Well, when she laid it out the way she did, yeah. I do, actually," he stated firmly.

Kacchan scoffed and gives a condescending bark of a laugh before he turned away from him, "Well you're both fucking _delusional_ if you think—"

"Are we, though?"

Kacchan whips around in a fury. "_What_ are you trying to say?"

Izuku had grown tired of this argument. The day had already been ridiculously long and extremely emotionally draining. There's no reason this can't wait until they get back to dorms. Or at the very least away from their parents.

"Forget I said anything," he says dismissing the line of questioning entirely, "Now if you could just leave so I could change, that'd be great. I'll be down to greet guests in a few minutes."

"Fuck that. Say what you were going to fucking say," Kacchan snarls.

"Why should I when you won't hear it? I'm not wasting my breath on this right now, Kacchan. Just _go_."

He pushed Izuku up against dresser, ignoring his request, and properly boxed him in, arms on either side of his waist. Izuku caught his burning viridian gaze and matched it.

"Say. _It_."

Their stare down was intense, the crackling tension was almost palpable as Izuku weighed his options.

Say it and risk them taking several steps back (when they had yet to barely even moved forward) or don't say it and continue this game of stop and go for who knew how long...

Izuku knew he should just hold off this conversation for another time, but he just wanted to say it _so bad_, God, it was on the tip of his tongue. And it had been ever since Mitsuki had planted the idea in his head. One devious seed that had managed to not only fully take root there, but overrun it with blooms of delusional possibilities.

Of Kacchan _caring_. Of him fighting his feelings because he thought he was unworthy. Of him seeing Izuku as anything other than the useless nerd he'd always sworn Izuku was…

"Fine," he grit out. Izuku had moved his mouth to speak and Kacchan's gaze fell down to it immediately, staring at his lips like he would savor every last word.

_He wants me to say it? I'll say it._

Izuku gripped Kacchan's jaw hard and didn't dare blink. There was an unmistakable look of apprehension simmering under Kacchan's standard defensive mechanism of rage. A quiet desperation cracking through the tough guy mask for Izuku to finally just lay it all out there _for_ him, so he wouldn't have to do it, wouldn't have to confess to anything.

Just sit there and let Izuku draw conclusions himself, gauge his reactions and respond accordingly. Because he's nervous. Scared Izuku would reject him if he said something first. Mitsuki hinted at it earlier and now seeing the pleading behind the angry front, Izuku knew she was right in her assumptions.

Kacchan's leaving the ball in Izuku's court so as not to mess up his chances, which is admittedly, kind of cute and sweet in a Kacchan kind of way, but the _stupid_ nuances in this situation and all the tip toeing around just made Izuku want to _scream _it all the more.

Their tentative development be damned. Izuku was a lot of things but he's not a coward. And if Kacchan won't say it, he will.

_You want me. _

_You. Want. Me._

_YOU want ME!_

Izuku tightened his grip on Kacchan's jaw and the muscles there tensed as Kacchan grit his teeth, preparing himself, fight or flight instincts probably raging within him, but Izuku wasn't giving him an out. Not this time. He leaned the rest of the way into Kacchan's space, a whisper away now, and fought down the full body shiver Kacchan's body was experiencing at their proximity to spit out the truth he'd be hiding from since this whole fiasco started.

"_You_—"

"Boooyysss!" A disembodied voice that was _seriously_ beginning piss him off rang through the room.

"Your mother's are calling for you downstairsss!" The voice sing-songed as a flare of blinding sparkles illuminated the darkening room. And then Kira's impish face popped up mere inches away from their own.

Kacchan backed up automatically with a string of colorful curses, and Izuku let him go reluctantly, the pivotal moment effectively severed. His side eye was murderous as he regarded Kira like the enemy she now _was_.

Two betrayals in less than hour? Yeah, she was definitely on his shit list.

Kira seemed to finally realize she'd interrupted something. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! They asked me to find you two and I heard you up here because, you know, excellent hearing, like I said," she pointed to her ear, smiling as she bragged on herself. "But I didn't think I'd be interrupting—"

"You didn't interrupt shit," Kacchan growled, but it was quiet and there was zero heat behind it. "I'm out of here," he grumbled, his face equally irritated and, Izuku wanted to say _disappointed_, but that may have just been wishful thinking.

"Kacchan, wait," he tried, but of course didn't listen. He didn't even look back at Izuku before ducking out the door, leaving him and the new bane of his existence alone.

He turned to Kira to rip into her, just to find her smug face staring back at him, arms crossed and a hip cocked, "That looked like a _pretty_ intimate moment, Bakugou…'Not together', huh?"

Izuku sneered at her, thoroughly fed up with her antics for the day, "Butt. _Out_," he hissed.

"Geez, sorry I asked," she laughed despite his waning temper, "Anyway! Guests are here, you've got like an hour before dinner starts, then another thirty after that before your speech! Might want to make your way to the sound crew for your mic a few minutes before that though," she tapped her chin, thinking hard, "Hmm…there was one more thing…Oh, yeah! You're mom said: 'If he's not down here in five minutes, all bets are off'. That was like three minutes ago? I have no idea what that means, but she looked pretty angr—"

Izuku stood ramrod straight and began shoving her out the open door. "What? Why didn't you lead with that?! You're the worst! Get out, get out! I have to change—she's going to murder me—go!"

She spun as he finally got her out the door and gave him a dry look, "You know, you're getting kind of pushy, kid. I'm just doing my jo—"

Izuku slammed the door in her face.

Two minutes later found him haphazardly dressed and running down the stairs still hopping to get his shoes back on and his shirt tucked in properly. He made it to the landing of the staircase and shoved his arms into his suit jacket just as Mitsuki was coming around the corner to head up, no doubt probably to find him.

She looked peeved, but it wasn't as malicious as usual because people were now milling about the house, chatting and laughing, and she couldn't let her true form known in polite company.

_Good to know everyone's pretending to be something they're not._

The sun was low in the sky when Izuku followed a group of people out onto the back porch, casting long shadows from the trees behind the house and setting the whole sky a lavish blood orange with indigo slowly bleeding in from the horizon.

The whole scene outside was like something out of a fairytale. All the tables decorated with extravagant arrangements of beautiful flora, soft off white linen draping dramatically over the dozen or so that were set up in the grass. Hundreds of candles softly illuminated the backyard. Creating the walkway down the porch steps, on the tables, little tea light candles setting on staged lilly pads in the pool, floating on top of the water's surface delicately.

Everything was spectacular, really, but the gazebo was far and away the most magical, and Izuku's not just saying that because they'd spent most of the day preparing it. It was definitely the center of attention for a reason.

The guy who decorated it was amazing, a bulky brute of a man that Izuku would've never guessed had a green thumb Quirk, turned the usually bland, average, centerpiece of the night into something so much _more_.

A curtain of cascading white wisteria curtained the entire circumference, but parted at the center of the entryway arch, allowing for a peek inside to see sting lights shedding a soft glow on the brilliant vines blooming with exotic flowers Izuku had never seen before wrapped up and around the support beams. Tasteful moss and ferns bloomed around the base of it with more candles illuminating the walkway up to its steps.

All the pieces put together with the promise of night on the horizon and stars beginning to sprinkle the sky had Izuku blown away. It was maybe a bit excessive, but it was also alluring, and enchanting, and _romantic_…and he begrudgingly had to hand it to Kira, she could throw one hell of a themed party—even if she was simultaneously the thief of all joy.

Her and Mitsuki really knew how to make an idea come to life. The whole scene felt _alive_ and _warm_ and Izuku hadn't even realized he'd been holding up the line for people to reach their seats until Mitsuki subtly snatched his wrist in an iron grip and dragged him along through the threshold.

He accidentally bumped into the gift table that was now filling with colorful boxes and bags and a large China vase wobbled slightly.

"Watch it," she snapped. "That's from your grandparents. They got it for their twentieth and its priceless."

Izuku considered it as she continued to drag him through the crowd just to drop him off in the middle of a group of complete strangers.

"Mingle," she hissed before addressing their group. "You all remember my son, Katsuki!" And then she was gone. Leaving him to juggle being Kacchan while somehow also behaving with manners at the same time. Which, for the record, is practically _impossible_.

He managed, though, but just barely. Grunting and conversing just enough to pass as acceptable, but not enough to raise any suspicion. It was tedious work. And by the time Kira's crew began herding people to their respective tables for dinner he was ready to collapse from the mental strain he'd put himself through.

He slumped into his assigned seat next to Mitsuki and decided to be 'brooding Kacchan' so he wouldn't have to speak to the people coming to sit down next to them. He leaned into his scowl and resolutely looked anywhere but the faces of the new members of their circle. It seemed to be working fine, Mitsuki didn't seem to mind since she was chatting up someone with Masaru, and everyone else had made conversation amongst themselves.

_This is too easy. Just have to get through the speech and I'm home free!_

Izuku had to catch himself from outwardly smiling. Although not for long, because when Kacchan and Inko took their seats across from him the urge to smile slipped away effortlessly.

"What are they doing here?"

Mitsuki examined her nails and looked entirely too nonchalant for Izuku's taste. "Inko is one of my oldest friends. I wouldn't let her sit with some group of strangers."

"You were fine with idea before our talk earlier, I saw the seating chart," he hissed. "What are you trying to pul—"

"Inko!" She disregarded him completely and waved across the table. "You look fabulous in the dress, what a lovely color. And Izuku you look so nice, too. Doesn't he look good Katsuki?"

She doesn't even look at him when she asks, just continues to smile at the pair across from them as Izuku gawked. Whipping his head to turn and catch Kacchan looking equally as horrified. They both blush furiously and try to talk over each other in a sputtering mess. Kacchan had to catch himself from dropping the 'f' bomb more than once.

Finally Izuku regains a bit of his composure to grit out, "Fine. He looks fine_. He's fine_," in a clipped off hiss that held up with his Kacchan rouse as well as letting Mitsuki know to drop whatever she was doing.

_We don't need anything else making today ridiculously awkward! Can she just not be the way that she is for once in her life, please?!_

But it seemed she either didn't notice or simply didn't care, because she replied in a carefree hum, "He _is_, isn't he?"

Kacchan chokes on the sip of water he'd just taken and Izuku wants to sink into the Earth. Thankfully the food drops in front of them at that exact moment and she blessedly turned her attention over to the waiter. Izuku chanced a look at Kacchan and he was pointedly looking anywhere but at Izuku. It probably didn't help the Inko was asking him what all that was about. Because how would he even begin to explain the absolute mess they were in currently? And not just because of the swapping Quirk…

He and Kacchan were uncharacteristically quiet throughout the meal. Both picking at the dishes in front of them as people conversed around them, unaware of the inner turmoil they both were experiencing.

Movement in Izuku's periphery broke him out of the downward spiral his brain was circling in. It was Kira pointing him in the direction of the DJ and he resisted the urge to drag his hands down his face.

The speech.

He never did talk to Kacchan about it. Not that it would've really made a difference in how things turned out, he doesn't think. They probably still would have been tip toeing around each other at dinner if he'd confronted Kacchan with actual proof of his feelings for him in the form of a love letter in his own handwriting. Izuku can't imagine any world where that wouldn't end in threats to his life and property damage.

He got up wordlessly, regardless, without sparing a glance at anyone he was sitting with, so as to keep what little composure he had left, and marched mechanically over to the sound booth set up on the side of the porch. He stood still as the guy attached a small wireless mic to the lapel of his jacket.

"Ok, man, these are pretty dope. Made 'em myself, super easy. No wires or buttons or anything, just tap it _once_ to turn it on and _twice_ to turn it off, cool?"

Izuku nodded numbly, barely registering what the dude was saying as he made his way towards the gazebo slowly. His heart was racing. He wasn't one for public speaking as it was, but now he was _Kacchan_, speaking at his parent's _anniversary party_, reading a speech he probably _never_ intended for Izuku to see. He had to stop Kacchan's body from starting small eruptions from the excess sweat that his hands were now producing.

The soft background music cut off suddenly and Izuku had to consciously think about breathing.

"Alriiight! Please welcome Masaru and Mitsuki's son, Katsuki, up! He has a few words he'd like to share, so let's hear it for him!"

The small party collectively gave a small round of applause as Izuku made his way up the steps of the beautifully made up gazebo.

He looked over at his table just long enough to see Kacchan staring at him. His eyes were comically wide and he looked a bit nauseous.

_Ah, so he had forgotten about the speech. Great._

Izuku felt his stomach churn. He wanted Kacchan to share his feelings, not have them forced out into the open against his will like this, but his hands were pretty much tied at this point.

He broke eye contact to fish the paper out of his pocket. He smoothed it out a bit and focused hard on keeping the explosions threatening to pop at bay, so as not to light the precious words on fire.

Izuku cleared his throat and tapped the mic once as instructed and a small green light popped up. Looking down at the crumpled sheet he began timidly, being careful to read around the scratched out portions the best he could.

"I'm usually told to sit down and shut (the fuck up) at these kind of things. But I was asked to say a few words, so bear with me. I'll keep it short. I know you all only came for the food anyway (you greedy motherfuckers}."

The crowd chuckles and Mitsuki rolls her eyes, but there's a small smile playing at her lips as she loops her arm into Masaru's. Izuku loosens up a tad at the group's reaction to the comedic antidote.

"Most of you know me. I'm crass, and brash, and…basically an ass, but folks—I got it from (the hag) my mother, I swear. She's one of the most intimidating, demanding, and calloused people I know. And for those of you confused by what I'm saying, you're probably new, just give it a couple months. (She's a raging bitch).

And then there's my dad. Who is arguably the complete opposite of this woman. And as I was growing up I used to think: 'What bet did this poor (son of a bitch) bastard lose to end up stuck with _her_?'"

The crowd laughs again. Even Mitsuki laughs despite the jabs, and Masaru just shakes his head, trying to hide his snickering. Mitsuki pinches his side in mock horror at his agreeance, and Izuku couldn't help the smile that quirked his mouth up at the corners.

He waited for the audience to settle down before continuing.

"But the older I got, and the more I realized I was my mother's son, the less I felt like my dad got the short end of the stick and more like my mom was the luckiest person on the planet.

To be able to find someone, not only brave enough, but understanding enough to put up with her and her (bipolar ass) wild mood swings and not try to modify her or 'make her better.

He made 'hard to love' look easy because he never thought loving her was hard.

Then, looking even deeper, I realized my dad was the lucky one, too. Because he happens to be the _only_ person who seems to understand her, (God knows I've tried), he gets access to the sweetest and most loving parts of my mom. Something solely reserved for him…and that's actually kind of beautiful…"

Mitsuki squeezed Masaru's arm and he pressed a sweet kiss to her temple. They both looked more in love than ever.

Izuku couldn't help, but think back to all the moments earlier today that proved Kacchan's observations. Mitsuki had been a tyrant to everyone today—the staff, Kira, the boys…but never Masaru. Even when he was the only one actively working against her today she was never anything but playful and kind (well, _her_ kind) to him.

And Masaru in return never lost his temper with Mitsuki, despite her avid attempts at riling him up. They were quite the pair to behold.

"They balance out one another in a way I'm coming to realize is much more important than finding someone who's just like you. Their differences and ability to understand that the other's weaknesses are their strengths, and their willingness to love unconditionally is something to aspire to.

They're an unstoppable team.

And maybe one day I'll be lucky enough to have a bond like that with (him) someone, too."

Izuku jolts at the last strikethrough and whips his head up to find the eyes he'd been avoiding in the sea of bodies before him since he'd gotten up on stage. It was dark now, but the verdant eyes shining with the help of the candlelight were like a beacon. Kacchan was already staring through him and they just looked at one another, waiting for some kind of reaction from the other to know how to proceed.

Kacchan's mouth was in a tight line and his brows were drawn together, but he looked like he had in the bedroom earlier: anxious yet hopeful with a pink dusting high across his cheekbones. And Izuku was beginning to blush himself.

_Kacchan really wrote this. And really put a lot of time and effort into it. And was thinking about me while he was writing it. Holy crap, Mitsuki _was_ right. I already knew that, but now it's like really real. It's really happening, oh my God. _

A realization smacked into him hard: It wasn't 'you want me' it was 'you want to _be_ with me'.

Izuku swallowed thickly. Physical attraction he could understand, he guessed, but a relationship?! If there was any way this could have been fabricated as some kind of cruel joke Izuku would jump at that opportunity to make sense of just what the hell was happening here.

But there was no way that was a possibility. Kacchan actually thought they could be an 'unstoppable team' like his parents. Since _when_?!

The internal panic was probably written all over his face and Kacchan must have taken it as a negative reaction to his unspoken question of: _well, you in or not_? Because he crossed his arms and broke eye contact to glare at the ground, looking properly dejected.

Izuku wanted to explain his confusion, but a cough in the audience had him blinking out of the trance he and Kacchan had been in. He quickly noticed everyone still looking at him expectantly, with soft smiles on their faces.

All except two.

Kira was smirking at him as she looked back and forth between the two boys knowingly. Mitsuki was giving him a similar face, looking _way_ too satisfied with herself before she mimed at him to wrap it up.

Izuku shook his head and cleared his throat again. He could now feel the flush all the way down his neck, but he managed to finish the speech without any other hiccups.

"Anyway, none of us would be here if that lunatic of a man hadn't strikerisked his life by agreeing to/strike said yes to that strikebatshit crazy/strike woman's demand to go out with him those twenty years ago. So cheers to a first date planned through arm-twisting coercion that then turned into a marriage only their offspring actually understands.

Happy anniversary, strikemaniacs/strike. I—love you—or whatever."

Izuku tapped the mic twice, folded the paper back up, and bowed awkwardly. Heavy clapping and rounds of laughter resounded as he was lifting back up. He gave a wobbly half smile as he headed off stage and back towards his table…where Kacchan was nowhere to be found.

He continued to stand when he reached his group again and looked around. A hand on his shoulder stopped his search momentarily.

"That was wonderful, son. Thank you," Masaru said tenderly. Mitsuki looked at him approvingly for the first time all day and Izuku finally felt like he could actually relax.

Mitsuki tugged on Masaru's arm, before Izuku could say anything in response, to get him to follow her up to where Izuku had just left, their vow renewals next up on the meticulous schedule for the evening.

Izuku was about to give up his quest to find Kacchan, deciding he should probably be present for his 'parent's' big moment, when Inko pulled on his jacket sleeve.

"Katsuki, dear, could you find my son? He's about to miss the most important part of the night!" she huffed, before backtracking. "No offense! Your speech was lovely. I even teared up at the end!"

Izuku chuckled, "You cry at everything, mo—Auntie."

She waggled her finger at him. "Now you sound like Izuku."

Izuku gave a nervous laugh. "I'll go find the nerd."

"Thank you!"

He gave one last three-sixty at the table to try and spot him and noticed green locks shimmering in the porch lights at the back of the party. He started towards them and the closer he got the more clearly he could hear Kacchan speaking to someone. But once he came up behind him, it was easy to see that he was the only one there.

"What the fuck do you want—leave me _alon_—!"

"Kacchan?" He asked hesitantly.

Kacchan stiffened immediately and rigidly turned to face Izuku, eyes a little wild. Izuku raised his hands up peacefully.

"I'm busy," he said before turning back around and throwing his hands up angrily. "He's fucking gone again!"

"Kacchan, there's still no one here, I—"

"Don't start with me Deku. Something weird is going on here. I don't know why you can't see him, but he's fucking here," he insisted, scanning the vicinity as he spoke.

"Sure, Kacchan," he let it go.

"Don't 'sure, Kacchan' me, asshole. I know what I'm talking abou—"

"I'm sure you do, Kacchan, but can we please just talk about your speech I just gave first?" Izuku was fed up with whatever this thing was Kacchan was hung up on. It wasn't pertinent to anything right now, and he needed answers dammit!

Kacchan snapped his mouth shut and sneered, "There's nothing to fucking talk about."

Izuku crossed his arms and arched a brow. "Really?" He asked, no nonsense in his tone.

Kacchan's responding scowl was one for the books, especially since it was accompanied with a deep red Izuku had never seen on his own face before.

"You knew about that damn speech in the bedroom earlier and were just—what? Fucking with me?"

"Kacchan, what? No!" Izuku flailed his arms helplessly. "I wanted to talk to you about it, but then we got off track like we always do and then _Kira_ and—"

"You know what? Don't fucking worry about it. Because I don't feel that way anymore anyway," he sniffed, defensively turning away from Izuku.

Izuku laughed. "Worst part about being in my body? My poker face is garbage. You're lying through your teeth right now."

"Fuck you, Deku."

"Oh, believe me, I know you want to."

Kacchan moved to leave, "I don't need this."

Izuku caught his arm and drug him in. "You started this, Kacchan. Quit pretending with me—"

Kacchan fought break free, but Izuku clamped down harder. "Fucking—just drop it, alright? I'm not doing this with you right now. I said I don't feel that way anymore. End of discussion."

Izuku will admit, it kind of stings being rejected like this, but he _knows_ Kacchan is lying and for no other reason than spite, at his point, he wants to prove it.

"Yeah? Your mom's only been planning this party for a month, and we've been like this for half a week. So you're telling me in the three week window you had to write the speech, you fell _out _of love with me?"

Kacchan snatched out of his hold and slammed his palms into Izuku's chest hard, pushing him back a few feet.

If Izuku was smart, he would've noticed the small green light pop on in his periphery in response to the shove.

"Who the—_fuck_—said I was in love with you?!"

Izuku rolled his eyes. "Oh, no, that's right I'm just some worthless nobody to you, right?" Izuku laughed bitterly. "That's bullshit and we both know it. I've _always _made you feel something stronger than anyone else. Tell me I'm wrong." Izuku shoved him back just as hard, and he stumbled back shocked.

Glitter that was now blinding in the night's darkness rained down suddenly and Izuku could feel his ire rising when the high pitched voice sounded right next to them. He barely noticed his hands starting to smoke.

"Yoooo, tiny friends. Not to break up the love fest or anything, but you're heard—"

Izuku didn't even look away from Kacchan when he screamed at Kira to 'Fuck off! We know you have 'exceptional hearing'. Go bother someone else with your C-list Quirk'.

And again, if Izuku was smart, he would have heard her mutter bitterly: "Don't need exceptional hearing when you're _screaming_ into an active mic." Before leaving with no further intentions of trying to save them from causing a scene.

But he was too caught up in their argument, and it seemed he was the only one to even pay her any mind anyway, because Kacchan got up in his face and continued on like nothing had even happened. "Don't act like it's just me," he hissed nastily. "We both know you drool over me any chance you get."

Izuku threw his arms out wide, an open book, "_I'm_ not the one denying I have feelings for you!" Izuku's voice had risen many octaves, his palms sparking dangerously and burning brighter with each new sentence. He distantly realized he was setting off explosions, but couldn't be bothered to smother them. "I would _gladly_ be the other half of you 'perfect team', I would! I'd be _anything._ If you'd only grow a pair and just tell me—just _let _me! God, you're so _fucking_ stupid sometimes!" He yelled letting off one last final _boom _heated the tense air around them.

And it was true. This whole dance was only happening because Kacchan refused to admit his feelings, he'd never even asked Izuku about his. Not that it was any real secret. He'd been fawning over Kacchan since they were kids. Even through the bad years and the fighting and the rivalry.

But apparently Kacchan needed to actually hear it to get it through his thick skull, so Izuku had just put himself out there. Screamed some damning words that couldn't be misconstrued, misinterpreted, or taken back and now Kacchan was just _looking_ at him. Izuku could feel his cheeks heating expeditiously with each second the silence stretched on.

And it was _extremely_ silent as they both stood their chests heaving.

With the constant back and forth they'd been caught up in finally over things started clicking into place. The green light he saw in the corner of his eye, Kira's words as she vanished…

Just as he realized he'd just confessed, screaming into the mic connected to the speakers that surrounded the entirety of the backyard, he heard a loud thud.

They both quickly turned to find every _single_ set of eyes on them— and Inko passed out on the floor.

Izuku blanched and looked to where Mitsuki was on stage, already knowing his tentative truce with her was now all but obliterated. She was hand in hand with Masaru who now just looked exhausted—like he'd just aged thirty years in a span of thirty seconds.

They were probably right in the middle of their vows, so Izuku knew he wasn't making it out of this one alive. And when he finally found Mitsuki's face it was twisted up with all the rage and aggression she'd been reigning in all day just like he figured it would be, and not a second after they'd locked eyes—she lunged.

Gasps rung out through the guests as Masaru struggled to keep his hold on Mitsuki, who was now hell bent on getting to Izuku.

Izuku turned to Kacchan pleadingly. "Please tell me you have another plan," he almost cries.

Kacchan backs away from him, still looking absolutely floored at Izuku's final statement. He backs away from him slowly and then more quickly. "I can't be here right now."

"Kacch—where are you going?!"

"To find that guy or—," he cursed as he bumped into a plant that was now alight with flames due to being so close to Izuku's detonating hands. "Um—something. Fuck I need—I just—" Izuku watched those jade eyes brim with tears, freckled cheeks go splotchy with color, his body most likely properly overwhelmed at this point. "I gotta go."

Izuku watched him basically sprint away from him, as he heard Mitsuki still struggling to maul him in the background. His eyes shifted back to the burning bush whose flames were rapidly jumping to others, green being overrun by an overwhelming orange all around him. The ominous crackle of the growing inferno somehow only overpowered by the thundering of his own heartbeat.

_This can't be happening._

He was shaking as he turned around to face her again. Finding her eyes again was a mistake, because something in her seemed to finally snap.

She wrenched harder this time to free herself, twisting and thrashing wildly, and when her elbow connected with Masaru's face all the noise zoned out of Izuku's ears and time stretched out, the domino effect of his outburst playing out in slow motion.

The amount of effort Masaru had been exerting to keep Mitsuki at bay worked against him as he let her go to grab his already leaking nose. He fell backwards onto the floor of the gazebo, long limbs knocking over a good amount of the candles there which quickly caught the surrounding plants and wood on fire.

Two different groups jumped up quickly to try and help with the flames on both sides of the yard, only for one of them to knock their table over and have their own candles create another hotspot. It ate up the table cloth in no time at all and then didn't hesitate to spread to the dry summer grass.

And once it touched down on the parched blades everything went up like a match in a violent _woosh_ of heat—before he knew it the entirety of the backyard was glowing a vicious, all-encompassing orange that was devastatingly intense in the bruised black of the night...

And that's how he'd ended up cornered against the gift table with nowhere else to go, Mitsuki mere feet away and most likely more than prepared to off her only child.

Izuku clinched his eyes closed just like he had all those hours ago at the front door and was again awaiting his fate, and just like last time Masaru swooped in at the last second. Disheveled and bleeding he blocked the distance between the problem and the self-appointed solution. Izuku let out a small sob of relief when he firmly stated: "No", to her demand of move or die.

Masaru Bakugou is a gift too pure for this world.

He's an actual saint.

A _hero_.

Izuku wishes that gentle giant every kindness. He wishes him every joy, and peace. Prays that he'll only ever know love and happiness. He hopes he lives a long and prosperous life. As well as his children, and his children's children. He hopes that he'll never know pain or sorrow again. That those big beautiful brown eyes only ever fill with tears in high spirits.

Izuku moves to flee, takes another step back, forgetting his positioning, and felt the dig of the table in his back a second too late. Just the slightest jolt from his retreat and the priceless China vase gifted to the couple was wobbling dangerously.

Izuku held his breath, hoping against hope that it would stay upright. It teetered once, twice more, paused for what felt like an eternity and then promptly shattered as it fell over the edge, because _of_ _course _it did.

Jagged shards of porcelain scattered around Izuku's feet and for a moment all that could be heard was the crackling of the flame until Mitsuki practically spat out, "Masaru—you're done here."

And to Izuku's abject horror, Masaru's entire demeanor deflated. He cast a disgraceful glance over his shoulder, shut his eyes and sighed out, "I'm sorry, son. You've brought it on yourself," before rushing off to help the nearest injured person, leaving Izuku alone with Mitsuki at the peak of her rage.

Masaru Bakugou is a traitorous _coward_.

He's sleeping with enemy, Izuku should've known better than to rely on him, to _trust_ him.

He hopes he _suffers_, he deserves _nothing_, how _dare_ he—

Izuku dodged a wild swing at his face at the very last second, these last few months of combat training the only thing keeping him from being caught by the surprise attack. Mitsuki snarled and lunged again and Izuku did the only plausible thing: he ran.

Ran to the back door and wrenched it open, ran through the kitchen, the living room, the foyer. It was a mad dash to the front door and just as he was about to wrench that open well when a size seven that probably cost more than his entire wardrobe narrowly missed his head and smacked against the entryway. He jumped with a yelp and watched it hit the floor before he whipped around wide eyed.

"You're fucking _craz_—!" The rest was cut off with sputtering when the other heel smacked him square in the face, Mitsuki hot on its trail.

"And you're fucking _dead_! Get your ass back here!"

He scrambled for the doorknob blindly, trying to fight back tears springing to his eyes from the sudden assault to his face. Once he had it in his grasp, he set of a few high intensity explosions to heat the metal thoroughly. He slammed the door in her face just as she was about to reach him. She cursed him loudly when she reached for the now smoldering handle and consequently burned her hand.

"Katsuki you little prick! You are _finished_ when I get my fucking hands on you, you hear me?!" Her threats continued to be muffled through the barrier between them while Izuku caught his breath and tried to figure out the next best course of action. Then he saw Kacchan basically shadow boxing in the driveway.

_Sure, ok, whatever. Weirder things have happened. No time to ask questions._

He made his way over to him in a hurry, Mitsuki still promising murder behind him, and wrenched him out of—

_What is this, a training session?_

"We need to leave." Mitsuki busted the front window with a smash that made Izuku jump out of his skin. She began to crawl out, some shards cutting into her skin and streaks of blood flowing down, a woman possessed. Izuku's stomach fell out of his ass. "_Now_."

"I almost had the guy, Deku, fuck off!"

"Kacchan, I swear to God. You're imaginary friend is the least of our problems right now, we need to leave—"

Kacchan ripped out of his hold and full cowling sparked to life around him before he delivered a round house kick that was almost impossible to see, it was so fast—and his foot actually connected with something.

Izuku let out a scream that would definitely not meet Kirishima's 'manliness' standards as the left side of a man's face appeared out of thin air and disappeared just as quickly with a grunt and a curse.

"What was that?!" Izuku shrieked.

"I've been trying to tell your dumbass!" He roared and brought his hands up to fight again, but apparently the man was no longer there.

"Fuck he's getting away!" And then he was off again in a flash of green light.

"Kacchan, _wait_—"

The next instant found Izuku on his back with the wind completely knocked out of him from connecting with the pavement so hard. Mitsuki had tackled him to the ground and was now straddling his chest, effectively pinning him in place.

She tried to swipe at his face and Izuku caught her hand, the other one came up too fast, though, and caught him by the throat. He clasped his other hand over hers and struggled to breathe as he tried to pry her off, but she had him in a vice grip.

_Jesus Christ she's strong, what the hell?!_

But he continued to try and fight her off, hands popping against his will in response to feeling trapped.

"I fucking dare you to use your Quirk right now. See what happens," she said in a tone that assured Izuku he did _not_ want to see what would happen. So he willed the explosions to stop and when they did Mitsuki hummed menacingly.

"I've been nice, Katsuki," she purred evilly, "I didn't go up to the school, I didn't attack you at the door. Hell I even lovingly opened up to you instead of beating your ungrateful ass, and all I asked was for you to behave in return." A truly wicked smile cut across her face, eyes crazed.

Izuku wanted to cry. He'd tried his hardest, he really had. But he slipped up in the home stretch and all that hard work resulted in him being choked out by a madwoman in the front lawn while a fire raged in the back. People were hurt, Kacchan was pissed at him and likely in danger…. He just wanted everything to go back to normal, he never asked for this! He didn't mean to ruin everything.

"I'm _SORRY_!" Izuku wailed, voice strained, as a single tear dropped down the side of his face and he kicked his legs violently. This gave Mitsuki pause, her eyes going wide for a split second before she narrowed them to absolute slits.

"Who the hell are you?" She demanded.

Izuku stopped struggling abruptly and they considered each other in silence, chests heaving. Considering how suspiciously she'd been regarding him all day Izuku shouldn't be as surprised as he was when she realizes he's not who he's been pretending to be.

When he didn't give her an answer her grip got even tighter around his throat. "I said 'who are you'," she hissed again as she got directly in his face.

"Ma'am, get off of the boy!"

Izuku hadn't even realized the police and fire department had come on the scene until they were right on top of them, circling around Mitsuki like she was a wild animal, quietly and with caution. But she didn't even blink at their arrival.

"You are not my son," she continued to dig into him and Izuku vision was beginning to dim. Whether it was from the Quirk because he was about five seconds away from being outed or because he legitimately could not bring in oxygen he was unsure.

"_Ma'am_."

At his continued lack of answer Mitsuki reared up and gripped Izuku's shirt, his now limp body going willingly, to scream,

"WHERE IS—"

The last thing Izuku saw were the neon blue feathers on a dart sticking out of her arm. She fell forward bonelessly. Izuku fell with her, ground connecting unforgivingly with the back of his head and then everything was black.

Izuku woke with a start and his hands flew straight too his neck before he realized no one's hand was latched onto it anymore.

Fluorescent lights blinded him momentarily and it took him a few seconds to realize he was laid out in an ambulance. When his breathing slowed a bit after coming down from the initial fright, he could hear hushed voices whispering. The back doors were open to the night sky where heavy smoke from, he assumed, the aftermath of the fire

billowed in the wind, smudging out the moon and stars.

"—came over you, Izuku? You've been acting a bit strange all day, and then the whole thing with Katsuki…should I be concerned?"

Kacchan smacked his hands down on the step he'd been sitting on and pushed up off it in an angry flurry of movement. Izuku and Inko both jumped at the abrupt fit.

"I don't need your _concern_. He just drives me _crazy_—_you_ drive me crazy! I'm not a kid anymore, I don't need you worrying about me twenty-four seven, so back off!" He screamed, breathing ragged.

Inko stared at him with wide eyes and Izuku could already see them brimming with tears before she looked up to starry night and gave a wobbly sigh.

"I only worry because I care, Izuku," she said softly. "I love you and I only want what's best for you."

Kacchan looked like he was internally kicking himself before he sighed and reached for her hand, taking the ice pack that was in it and placing it back on her head. "I'm…sorry. I know you do, it just feels like you don't believe in what I'm capable of. I'm not that Quirkless little boy anymore."

Inko cupped his face in one palm and gave a watery smile. "I suppose I'm still adjusting to all this. For years I thought your father leaving created this void for you that I needed to fill," she sniffled.

"Me not having a relationship for you to look up to. Not having the money we always needed... I got into the habit of trying to protect you from the harsh realities this world has to offer the best I could, but you still felt them... And now I guess I just ended up smothering you all the while as well." She gave a self-depreciating laugh.

Kacchan frowned. "Stop that," he snapped. "Knowing all those realities and having you as a mom is what's going to make me such a good hero." He looked over his shoulder to where Izuku was lying to check if he was awake and Izuku quickly shut his eyes.

When Kacchan continued he reopened his eyes and had to fight back tears. "I'm not going into training with any wool over my eyes. The world is tough, and sure I learned that early on, but I had you there as the perfect example that even though the world can be calloused and cruel, it doesn't have to turn me that way, too. You're still so bright and loving despite everything, and I wouldn't be where I am without you…you're literally, like, the best mom."

Inko just shook her head.

"You don't believe me? Look how that guy turned out," he thumbed back to Izuku, basically ragging on himself now. "You could've done a lot worse." Inko wiped a few tears that were streaking down her face and gave a wet laugh.

Kacchan wiped the rest and smiled with her. "You made a kick ass kid, alright? So lighten the hell up."

"Izuku!"

Izuku shook his head. Kacchan had been so close to a perfect day. But Izuku's heart swelled regardless. Kacchan was being _sweet_, and Izuku was _melting_.

"Sorry, sorry. But we're good? I don't need you constantly worrying about things that were outside of your control. I turned out fine, and capable, and strong. And I'll still love you if you loosen the reigns a little bit, I promise."

Inko finished drying her face and threw her arms around Kacchan nodding her head. He looked genuinely surprised, and hesitated with his arms out awkwardly for a few moments before he embraced her back and stoked down her hair lightly. Izuku couldn't help the dopey smile that spread across his face at the sight.

A scuffle sounded outside of the truck and Inko peeked around the corner nervously.

"Ah…Mitsuki is coming out of the sedative they gave her. I think maybe you boys should get out of here," she said with a giggle.

Kacchan smiled at her, confused. "You don't think we should stay and face her wrath?"

"Oh, you're welcome to stay if you want to, but I would advise against it."

Kacchan hopped up without any hesitation. "Then we're out of here," he said easily. He pecked Inko the cheek and wished her luck with the Bakugous in the wake of this tragic evening. Inko only rolled her eyes and insisted she's been through worse with Mitsuki, which Izuku found terrifying.

Kacchan only laughed disbelievingly and watched her go, when he turned to find Izuku watching him his smile faded to a neutral line. He didn't sound angry when he said, "How much did you hear?" Just weary.

Izuku sat up with a wince, his throat and chest still sore from being choked out. "I came in around the 'yelling at my mother' bit."

"Of course you did," he sighed out in irritation.

"It turned out alright though...I didn't realize she could be understanding about stuff like that, especially after everything that went down tonight," he said with an awkward chuckle and scratch behind the head.

Kacchan took a seat on the other side of the truck and shrugged. "She's actually a lot more chill than I thought. I know I was shitty at her earlier, but come to find out she only acts that way because you let her. If you just tell her what you want, she'll get it," he said matter-of-factly.

Izuku blinked at him to see if he was serious, but Kacchan's face stayed passive. His eye twitched as he resisted the urge to scream about the irony of what Kacchan had just said, And snap at him to take his own advice. He instead took a book out of Mitsuki's breathing exercise techniques and decided to let it go in favor of capitalizing off of his first semi-decent mood.

He hummed his agreeance and started in on a, hopefully, safe topic to start. "So… What happened to the invisible man?"

Kacchan stiffened and frowned instantly, turning his face away. "He got away. But he smiled as he was leaving and I finally knew where I've seen his mouth before."

Izuku raised his eyebrows and Kacchan continued. "He was there a ground Beta after our spar. He was behind you when you were carrying me to Recovery Girl, smiling. So that's two days in a row now I've seen this guy in completely different settings. He wants something and I don't think he's friendly despite him not fighting back earlier."

Izuku hummed again, considering. "You know, there's a joke in there somewhere about you focusing on men's lips a lot lately, but I'm too tired to find it."

Kacchan snarled and pushed up to leave. "Fuck you, Deku."

Izuku laughed and caught his arm, standing with him despite the pain in his chest screaming at him. "I'm sorry. You're right this is _serious_," he said through giggles.

Kacchan rolled his eyes but didn't try to move away again, if anything he seemed to be leaning into Izuku's space more.

"I hate you."

Izuku thought back to just a few seconds ago when Katsuki was - unbeknownst to Inko - complementing Izuku on what a good hero he was going to be. And then even earlier in the day when he'd almost called him _perfect_. And all the times when he'd caught Katsuki staring at him, with hope in his eyes.

Yeah, there was no way Izuku was wrong about how Kacchan felt now. He cared—_a lot_. Even if he wouldn't admit it yet.

"_Sure_ you do," Izuku agreed teasingly.

They looked at one another and the heat Izuku was beginning to recognize as Kacchan's body's excitement of having Izuku's near started thrumming under his skin intensely.

_Maybe…now would be an okay time to bring up the other stuff? _

"Um, so—" he started.

Both their phones went off at the same time and the notifications cut through the soft moment they were having with a blaring _ding_. And then several more followed.

Kacchan blinked and stepped back slightly, fishing his out and furrowing his brows. "The 1-A chat is blowing up. Something about a party?"

Curiously Izuku took out his own phone and sure enough everyone was talking about how Aizawa was gone for whatever reason, and apparently Iida (who they'd removed from the chat right before the text chain) was off too, visiting his brother. The last message declared Denki had a stash of booze big enough to supply everyone and that a few of them were already dipping into it.

The one from Ashido about "not starting party games until Mido and Blasty get back" was particularly concerning.

Then a video popped up. Kacchan looked at Izuku warily and Izuku moved closer so they could both watch it off of one screen.

Ashido's pink face popped up, flushed and giggly. She sputtered and laughed as she realized the camera wasn't facing the right way, before flipping it to show Denki setting up bottles of liquor in the kitchen. "Say it again!" She laughed and Denki turned around with a red solo cup in one hand and a large bottle in the other and yelled, "COME GET Y'ALL'S JUICE!"

He and Kacchan watched the video end, and when the back of the ambulance was completely silent again, they both let out a whispered: "_Shit_."


End file.
